Peirene Press novellas are reliably excellent but rarely cheery reads. Katja Oskamp’s Marzhan, Mon Amour bucks that trend with its tender, affectionate portrait of a community told through a set of thumbnail sketches of her clients by an unnamed writer turned chiropodist. Regular readers might notice that this is the second visit to Berlin in a fortnight after Emma Harding’s Friedrichstrasse 19. This time, we’re further out in the suburbs.
Our work is priceless! Our clients are the best! Marzhan, mon amour!
Our narrator has reached her middle years when invisibility is welcome but her publisher’s rejection of her latest novella is not. Her partner is sick, and her daughter long since left home leaving her not quite knowing what to do with her life until a beautician friend suggests retraining as a chiropodist and working in her salon in the old East Berlin suburb of Marzhan, built in the 1970s. Every working day our narrator takes the S-Bahn, opens the salon and prepares to meet her clients, many of them ageing, all with a story to tell. Our narrator listens attentively to each of them, from the ex-party official proud of the sexual prowess he once enjoyed to the couple enjoying their middle age, from the ancient matriarch who hears more than she lets on to the two women, now firm friends, who met through the love of their dachshunds. Once a year, our narrator and her two colleagues enjoy each other’s company at a day out at a thermal spa. After four years, our narrator is writing again, fitting brief stints in between her days at the clinic.
Better ten dachshunds than one man
Oskamp’s novella is an absolute delight, telling the story of this suburb of which our narrator is so proud through the lives of her clients with an empathetic humanity. She begins with a meditation on middle age, happily embraced in the novella’s final section with its pleasing update on her various clients. There’s a poignancy about some of their stories nicely captured by our narrator, alert to their needs but never intrusive. In its gentle humour and style, it reminded me of Robert Seethaler’s The Field which tells the story of a small community through the voices of its dead. A lovely piece of writing, beautifully translated by Jo Heinrich who, like our narrator, changed careers in middle age. This is her first piece of published translation and I’ll be keeping an eye out for more.
Peirene Press: London 9781908670694 144 pages Paperback
One of my best friends is a physiotherapist in Berlin, and sometimes tells me funny stories about her job and clients. So this is a book I can entirely empathise with and hope to read soon!
I wonder what she would make of it! I’m not fond of the word ‘heartwarming’ but this one really is. Hope you enjoy it.
Thank you. This sounds wonderful and I’ve just ordered it 🙂
Delighted to hear that. It’s a treat – a few hours of pure enjoyment.
Sounds lovely, elegiac, I’ll have to place this review in my folder of keepers. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Jennifer. It’s a love letter to Marzhan and those that live there as you tell from the title.
On my pile – to be elevated nearer the top I think after your recommendation. Sounds wonderful.
It is, Annabel. Definitely a happy afternoon’s read!
Everything about this appeals to me – it sounds an absolute gem.
I’m sure you’d love it. So cheering!
Peirene Press comes out with some gems doesn’t it. As you say, this is an unusual one for them. Looking at my collection I don’t see anything in there that is “cheerful”
And the Wind Sees All is the closest they’d come to cheery in my experience. This one’s a joy!
I had to smile at your opening sentence because I do tend to think of Peirene Press novellas as bring quite dark. This one sounds lovely though. Nice to know they can produce cheerful too.
Indeed, and this one’s a joy from start to finish.
I have this on my bedisde table and if it wasn’t for Reading Ireland Month I’d be straight on it after this review. Sounds like a real treat. Pereine are so good.
I hope you get to it soon, Cathy. It’s the kind of cheering read we all need at the moment.
I was going to ask Karen’s question, whether this is an anomaly. Even though I do appreciate and admire the kind of spare prose that presents a complex topic with clarity and unsentimental storytelling, I think it’s great they’re broadening their scope.
Me, too. I wonder if their next title will continue the trend!
Our library doesn’t get many Pereines – let’s hope this is one we order. It sounds lovely!
It is! A nice slice of comfort reading. Fingers crossed your library will stock this one.
I agree with your assessment. It’s a book entirely rooted in everyday reality of the most mundane kind, that nonetheless succeeds in being a triumph of humanity and optimism. With each chapter telling the life of a different client, it’s a masterpiece of storytelling in miniature.
It’s a small gem, isn’t it. A refreshing reminder of decency and humanity, much needed at the moment.