City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

1000 coils of fear, Olivia Wenzel ; translated from the German by Priscilla Layne

eng

no index present

fiction

1000 coils of fear

Olivia Wenzel ; translated from the German by Priscilla Layne

'I have more privilege than any person in my family. And I'm still screwed.' A young woman attends a play about the Berlin Wall coming down and is the only Black person in the audience. She is sitting with her boyfriend by a bathing lake and four neo-Nazis show up. In New York, she witnesses Trump's election victory in a strange hotel room and later awakes to panicked messages from friends. Engaging in a witty question and answer with herself, the narrator looks at our rapidly changing times and tells the story of her family: her mother, who was a punk in East Germany and never had the freedom she dreamed of and her absent Angolan father. But in the background of everything is the memory of her twin brother, who died when they were nineteen. Emotional and funny, Olivia Wenzel writes about loneliness and finding joy in life within the roles that society assigns you. 1000 Coils of Fear is a highly original novel both powerfully poetic and full of surprises

One thousand coils of fearThousand coils of fear