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Elke Heidenreich, author and book critic
Margaret Laurence is a Canadian author, born in 1926, died in 1987.
And it is now being discovered in Germany.
A few years ago, her book »Der steinerne Engel« (The Stone Angel) was published by Eisele Verlag in Munich.
It was about an incredibly evil old woman who bullies her family and they were all really just waiting for her to finally die.
And towards the end it gets a little softer.
And now a new book has been published, again by Eisele, they're taking care of Margaret Laurence, "A whim of God," is a mother-daughter novel.
It's about a mother again.
So this Margaret Laurence must have known mothers quite well.
And this mother isn't as bad and hard as Helga Ripley, she's very gentle.
When her daughter Rachel — 34, a teacher who has never had a boyfriend — when she wants to date a young man, she says, 'But darling, do you think that's a good idea?
And does it have to be today when I have my bridge evening?
So who's supposed to serve the appetizers?' Yes, who's supposed to serve the appetizers?
Would you like to serve yourself your own appetizers?
So, it's an inner monologue from this daughter, Rachel Cameron, who lives with her elderly mother.
And this mother is gentle and kind and bullies the daughter and actually destroys her life.
But it's also down to the daughter herself, because she always just cuddles and always withdraws and never dares to live her own life.
And now Nick, a former school friend, comes to this boring summer town because he's visiting his parents and just has a nice summer with her, starts an affair with her and it's her first physical relationship with a man, at 34 years old.
It's the 1960s, the book was written in 1966, but it's still very modern.
It's about a woman who always takes herself back and doesn't dare to do anything at all.
And now?
Rachel knows from the start that this affair isn't going to work out.
Nick will go away again and will forget her.
It's only for one summer, but it changes everything about her.
It shows her, I'm someone too, I finally have to live my life.
And she understands, my mother, who always bullies me, my mother is helpless, she is the child, she is afraid of losing me.
In other words, she is now turning her head around: "I am the adult, I have to take care of my mother, and she doesn't have to tell me what to do, but vice versa - I have to protect this child's mother".
The other great Canadian author Margaret Atwood, the Nobel Prize winner, wrote a wonderful afterword to this book, A Freak of God, and said: "Margaret Laurence wrote the almost perfect novel." This almost is almost comical again, because it doesn't get any more perfect than that.
That mix between vicious, weird, funny and insightful.
A very wonderful book.
And then it occurred to me that some time ago I read a book about an old woman called »Cloris«.
That was a novel published by CH Beck two years ago.
And the publishing house Kain und Aber has now published it in its beautiful series of paperbacks with colorful paper cuts on the pages, two years later as a paperback - »Cloris«.
Cloris is Mrs. Waldrip, who with her husband, to whom she has been married for 54 years, she is 72 years old, with her husband, whom she only ever calls Mr. Waldrip, on a helicopter flight crashed in the woods over an inaccessible area.
And she sees he's hanging in the tree.
And he doesn't answer her.
Otherwise he always answered her.
And he also hangs there a little unhappily.
And she knows Mr. Waldrip is no longer with us.
And now she has to survive on her own.
And how she does it
with a handbag in the forest, never forgetting her manners, always polite, always friendly, to animals and trees.
And she survives because there is someone else hiding in the forest who the rangers are looking for.
And he sees this old woman staggering around and always puts her something to eat, gives her tips on where to get water to drink and both are now wanted.
You as a survivor of this crash.
And he, because he has something on his plate and how these two stories grow together - great.
Now, given the choice between being Miss Cameron and saying, "Honey, you're not going out on my bridge night, are you?" or being Mrs. Waldrip, trudging through the woods with a purse and surviving?
Then we decide for Mrs. Waldrip.
Two wonderful new books.
Read!
»The Suspect« opens the bestseller list at number ten: Investigator Lacey Stoltz is familiar with cases of corruption in the judiciary.
But this time she is dealing with a judge who doesn't accept bribes - but kills the people involved.
Written by the doyen, thriller and bestseller regular John Grisham.
Also indispensable on the bestseller list: in the 71!
Carsten Henn's bookseller, Carl Christian Kollhoff, is on his way to his customers every week to bring their beloved reading material to their homes.
"The book walker" this week on the nine.
Up one place from last week: American crime writer Elizabeth George and the 21st case of her investigator Thomas Linley.
The story is set in the Nigerian community of North London.
Here Inspector Linley encounters murder, human rights violations and a wall of silence.
eighth place
On the seven there is a reunion with Carsten Henn.
The prolific writer obviously hits the nerve of readers with his second feel-good book: »The Story Baker« concentrates entirely on the happiness of the little things.
This time it's about the art of bread baking.
The list with »Tomorrow can come« shines all in pink.
The so-called women's novel about the courage to change comes across as sweet, at least visually.
It is about new beginnings and new beginnings and how to master them.
From an author who knows about sales in the millions.
Ildikó von Kürthy on the six.
And while we're on the subject of predictable bestsellers: The author duo Micky Beisenherz and Sebastian Fitzek also take the path of least resistance to success.
Her thriller, aptly titled "Write or Die," slips down a spot in the top five this week.
On the four we come face to face with a homicide, the 14th in line around Inspector Bruno.
Born in Scotland, Martin Walker lives in the French provinces.
His Bruno novels are also set here.
This time it's about an unsolved murder case in which archaeological reconstructions play a role.
»Tête-à-Tête« – the fourth place of the week.
And there we have another touch of color on the list.
This time the lavender is blooming in volume one of the new »New Adult Series‹ »Scarlet Luck«, that's the name of the series in the publisher's speech.
It's about the love story of Rosie, host of a web radio show and Adam, drummer of the famous band Scarlet Lack.
The author Mona Kasten is already looking forward to a happy ending for the two of them and thus lands on the three this week.
On the other hand, it's about woman power on the two.
Elke Heidenreich's acclaimed novel about women asserting themselves in a man's world climbs two places.
The American Bonnie Garmus convinces with: »A question of chemistry«.
And "Affenwärme" remains firmly in first place this week. After the last case involving the Allgäu inspector Kluftinger was on the bestseller list for what felt like a whole year, the author duo Klüpfel and Kobr have now made it to the top with a new work.
In the new case, Kluftinger meets the primeval monkey »Udo«.
