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Iris Hanika: When Two Meet (Treffen sich zwei)
Novel
Hardcover | 240 pages | ISBN 9783854207375 | Jan 2008 | Droschl Verlag
English excerpt
The book: You don't know when it'll happen and you don't know where, but one thing is certain – at some point, love strikes: "What's happened now is life going haywire or a rift in time or a break in the world, or whatever." Here, it happens to two people who have been used to getting through life on their own for quite a while, and it's a bolt from the blue: he has the most wonderful eyes in the world, and she is so beautiful, he thinks he's hallucinating. Of course, that only lasts for a few days. "How stupid it all is, this carry-on and fuss. Not just able to be normal! Everything always having to be so complicated." Yes, it has to be, if only for the benefit of literature and for an even more enjoyable read.
"Treffen sich zwei" is a romantic novel for adults and a local novel from Berlin-Kreuzberg. It's about desire and anxieties, about the working life of a systems consultant and the emotional turns of a gifted hysteric. Sex manuals are used, music, song lyrics, plus alcohol and urine therapies. Iris Hanika writes about the oldest subject in literature tenderly and with wit, precision and an elegant use of language.
The author: Iris Hanika, born 1962 in Würzburg, has been living in Berlin since 1979 where she writes a column for the "Merkur" and had at one time translated computer manuals from English. Publications: "Katharina oder Die Existenzverpflichtung" (story), "Das Loch im Brot" (chronicle, 2003), "Musik für Flughäfen" (short texts, 2005), "Die Wette auf das Unbewusste oder Was Sie schon immer über Psychoanalyse wissen wollten" (with Edith Seifert, 2006) and "Berlin im Licht. 24 Stunden Webcam" (edit.with Stefanie Flamm). Iris Hanika was awarded the Hans Fallada Preis in 2006.
Photo: © Jörg Schmiedkind
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