Maike Wetzel: Distant Beloved

Maike Wetzel
Distant Beloved

stories, new

240pp (59,300 words)

Maike Wetzel’s collection of short stories includes pieces for insomniacs, lovers and anybody who was once young. A man tells a woman, I love you, and at that moment the search begins. A girl starves herself down to a skeleton before her family’s very eyes. A car accident and three lovers make a young woman doubt reality. A small child turns a couple’s life on its head.

Love – friendship – hatred. For the distant beloveds in Maike Wetzel’s stories, it’s not quite that simple. Their souls vibrate down fibre-optic cables and in the troughs of free-range pigs. They collect loyalty points, live north of Hollywood, in the countryside, in the big city or in enchanted hotel ruins. They dream, love and lose themselves – on sleepless nights, when having children, at strange windows or among grass and turnips. Some of them are on the verge of growing up; others already have. All of them are fumbling around at the border between longing and reality.

»Maike Wetzel’s sentences are like tiny barbs: eventually there are so many that any world can become unhinged.«
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Reviews

»In a clear and elegant language, Maike Wetzel describes a sense of insecurity spreading around. (...) How the everyday changes into something menacing reminds of Kafka's stories.«
MDR Kultur

»This book knocks you down. (…) Every page is a delight.«
Barbara Ghaffari, Book Reviews

»Remarkable literary stories.«
Heiko Buhr, lebensart

More titles by Maike Wetzel

Maike Wetzel: EllyMaike Wetzel: Floating Bridges