Margit Schreiner
They Call it Love
fiction
152pp
English sample translation (pdf)
»In the end we kill our mothers because we don’t want to tell any more lies«, begins HEISST LIEBEN by Margit Schreiner, a stunning work of literature, of a rank that has not been seen for quite some time: powerful writing, flinty, impressive, stylistically brilliant, exhilarating.
Margit Schreiner writes about the death of a mother, about an imaginary love, a wedding in Italy and the birth of a daughter:
»Our mothers are not capable of paying attention to other people. They don’t pay any attention to our fathers, or our neighbours or our relatives either. Our mothers can only pay attention to people they have absorbed into their own lives. They have their opinion of how people are and believe this opinion is the truth. And, of course, our mothers have an equally narrow picture of themselves, since they also have a certain opinion of themselves and they will never be able to see anything beyond this opinion. This was our childhood: we grew up as opinions of our mothers. So, of course, we had to keep running away from our mothers, to avoid going crazy.«
Rights sold
Turkey – Yapi Kredi Kultur
paperback - Random House/Goldmann
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Reviews
»Brilliant. This goes under your skin. Reminds of Thomas Bernhard.«
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
»Margit Schreiner pulls out all the stops (...), very complex but easy to read, spontaneous and sensuous and yet sharp-wittedly reflected.«
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
»There's first sentences you'll never forget. Margit Schreiner's intelligent prose has a big advantage: She is not breaking any taboos, she is playfully abolishing them.«
Die Literarische Welt
»Margit Schreiner is specialist for interhuman horror, for stories of love and hate. Her merciless glance at it and her clear style provide for an entertaining read. Thoughtfulness not impossible.«
DIE WELT
»Margit Schreiner is deconstructing Thomas Bernhard.«
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
»A master of the understatement, tracking down the essence of existence in daily horrors.«
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
»This is a book for daughters of mothers. More to the point: This is THE book for daughters of mothers.«
Hamburger Morgenpost
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