look at me

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Look at me is the fourth novel by the German writer Mareike Krügel . It was published by Piper Verlag in 2017 , and numerous translations into other languages ​​followed.

action

The novel is set on a Friday in winter. The setting is Kiel , on the last pages the action shifts to Berlin shortly. The story is told from the perspective of the 40-year-old first-person narrator Katharina Theodoroulakis. The starting point of the book is the discovery of “something” in your breast, most likely a symptom of breast cancer . The main character assumes that he will die from it and recapitulates her life against this background.

Katharina studied music, but dropped out of her doctorate, also because she had to raise her children, the now 17-year-old Alexander (Alex) and the 11-year-old Helena (Helli). Her husband, the Greek-born architect Costas, has had an office job in Berlin for some time, and the two of them have a troubled weekend relationship.

In her personal perception, Katharina did not achieve what she wanted to achieve. Her ambitions to become a successful musician have shrunk to the point that she offers courses in early musical education in order to make some extra money. Your preference for classical music is made clear by the repeatedly interspersed comments on certain favorite pieces.

So far she has kept the discovery of the "something" in her breast to herself, but towards the end of the novel she decides to tell her husband and rushes off to Berlin.

Editions and translations

  • Look at me. Novel. Piper, Munich / Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-492-05855-1
    • Zie me staan (Dutch translation). Amsterdam: Ambo Anthos 2018
    • Un giorno quasi perfetto (Italian translation). Milan: Mondadori 2018
    • Pose tes yeux sur moi (French translation). Paris: NiL 2018
    • Look at me (English translation). Melbourne: Text Publishing 2018
    • En nesten perfect dag (Norwegian translation). Oslo: Gyldendal 2019
    • En next perfect dag (Swedish translation). Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag 2019

Web links

Reviews in German-language media