If I tell you that this book is, in part, about a relationship between a 51-year-old married man and a 19-year-old woman, you would be forgiven, I think, for assuming that the book was written by a man. In this case, you would be wrong as this International Booker Prize winner (https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/what-everyone-is-saying-about-kairos-winning-the-international-booker#:~:text=Kairos%20is%20the%20winner%20of,from%20German%20by%20Michael%20Hofmann.) was written by a woman, Jenny Erpenbeck. As the relationship between the dominating Hans and the (words fail me here) young woman, Katharina evolves, the question lingered in my mind. What response would this book have gotten if it had been written by a man? Katharina is not completely passive and does show some assertiveness and growth near the end, but the novel, on the level of this personal relationship, was troubling.
On the political level – the plot covers the time when the Berlin Wall came down – background knowledge is useful. Still, one can see the contrasts between East and West and the way the West, well, dominated the East when the Wall fell (and not always to good effect).
The Epilogue was, for me, a complete throwaway – an unnecessary ‘surprise’ ending that didn’t really add anything.
bookreviewsbycharles 