Dörte Hansen "Zur See": Island novel and place of longing

Created: 06.10.2022, 18:00

By: Sven Trautwein

Dörte Hansen's first two novels were a great success.

"Lunchtime" is currently being filmed in cinemas.

Does the third book “Zur See” build on its predecessors?

My book tip.

It's rough and stormy on the sea.

The ferries set the rhythm of an island day.

When the summer months are gone, it's a little quieter in Dörte Hansen's "Zur See", but meanwhile many guests also stay over the winter months.

The thatched roof houses, formerly inhabited by islanders, look empty at the area.

Inhabited only a few weeks a year by the financially strong buyers.

Everything changes.

No one goes whale hunting anymore.

Instead, they try to make money with vacation rentals.

Dörte Hansen "Zur See": About the book

Dörte Hansen's third novel "Zur See" © Penguin Randomhouse

The ferry takes an hour from the mainland to the small North Sea island, sometimes longer depending on the swell.

The Sander family has lived here in one of the two villages for almost 300 years.

Hanne raised three children, her husband gave up the family and seafaring.

Now her eldest has lost his captain's license, is tormented by premonitions and tide statistics, and awaits the heaviest of storms.

Daughter Eske, who cares for seamen and widows in the retirement home, fears the flow of tourists more than the water, because with them the island culture has long since degenerated into folklore.

Only Henrik, the youngest, is at peace with himself.

He is the first man in the family who has never been drawn to a ship, only to the beach where he collects flotsam.

In the course of a year, the life of the Sander family changes from the ground up,

Penguin Randomhouse

Books by North German authors, such as Heinz Strunk's "Ein Sommer in Niendorf", have their very own atmosphere.

And rarely do they pull you right into the action, build up tension that you only know from a good thriller.

The reader is taken along and gets to know a non-freezing deckhand at the beginning.

You learn how to freeze “properly” on the coast.

The summer vacationers who walk along the beach promenade in their all-weather jackets and expensive hiking shoes cannot do that.

On an island ferry, somewhere in Jutland, Friesland or Zeeland, there is someone who loosens and ties the lines, and he is always too thinly dressed for the salt and iron cold of a North Sea port.

If he wears a hat on autumn and winter days, it doesn't cover his ears at all.

He never wears gloves.

(...) And the jacket he wears always looks like it belonged to his ancestors.

Penguin Randomhouse – Excerpt from “Zur See”

First of all, it is noticeable that the chapters manage almost without verbatim speech.

A bit like the cliché of the North Germans who don't talk that much.

The story of the long-established Sander family, the insight into family life, in which everyone has to carry their own baggage and sometimes becomes addicted to alcohol, makes you sympathize and pause.

Pause until the author's descriptions continue briefly and concisely, sometimes at length.

The island novel “Zur See” awakens a longing for the sea.

It shows a world that no longer exists and only lives on in the memories of previous generations.

The island is hardly home to those born there.

The example of the island of Sylt shows that there is hardly any space left for locals.

The sale has long since begun.

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Dörte Hansen "Zur See": My conclusion

It's the love of the sea that makes up every line of the book.

As a North Frisian in exile, I read the book with great pleasure, it is a kind of "feeling of home" that gripped me by the pages.

Anyone looking for a place of longing by the sea will get a whole lot closer with this book.

A must not only for die-hard sea fans and for me the best book of the fall.

Dörte Hansen "At Sea"

2022 Penguin Randomhouse, ISBN-13 978-3-328-60222-4

Price: Hardcover €24, e-book €19.99, 256 pages (different format) – Order now (promotional link)

Dorte Hansen

Dörte Hansen, born in Husum in 1964, worked as an NDR editor and author for radio and print after studying linguistics.

Her debut "Altes Land" (advertising link) became the "favourite book of the independent book trade" in 2015 and the bestseller of the year 2015 on the SPIEGEL bestseller list.

Her second novel "Mittagsstunden" (advertising link) was published in 2018, was again the SPIEGEL bestseller of the year and was awarded the Rheingau Literature Prize and the Grimmelshausen Literature Prize.

Dörte Hansen, who lives with her family in North Friesland, is the Mainz town clerk for 2022.