As of: January 29, 2024, 11:17 a.m
By: Sven Trautwein
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Rising rents in the capital and an inherited estate.
Monika Maron lets a seniors' shared apartment move into “Das Haus”.
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Loneliness seems to be inevitable for many old people.
But what if, when you are older, you settle down in an inherited estate with like-minded people and start a new phase of your life there?
Monika Maron takes us on a journey north of Berlin.
Here the first-person narrator wants to open a new chapter after the rents in the capital can no longer be met.
The city escape story is a little reminiscent of the series “Bundschuh Family”.
Frictions and different world views are also inevitable in the novel.
In “Das Haus” writer Monika Maron writes about the small and large stories of a retirement community.
© Panama Pictures/Imago/Hoffmann and Campe (montage)
The author lets seven different personalities move into an inherited estate in Bossin.
Viewed with suspicion by the residents, the newly thrown together roommates gradually try to gain a foothold.
Whether smoking or bringing a pet with you, the characters and stories gathered will probably be familiar to many people from their private lives.
In the book, Maron manages to tie up the loose ends of the individual characters.
Katharina, a retired veterinarian, inherits a remote manor house northeast of Berlin.
The idea was quickly born to set up a community there with friends in order to escape the rising rent prices in Berlin and not be alone in old age.
Eva, Katharina's friend, initially resists the idea of moving in with people over sixty.
But then she is forced to get involved in the experiment and accepts a new beginning.
Blurb/Hoffmann & Campe
For Juli Zeh it was “Unterleuten”, for Monika Maron the place of the story is called “Bossin”.
Strange and somehow familiar all in one.
Everyone in the estate is connected by age.
It is not a mixed shared apartment where, throughout history, the younger residents take care of the older ones.
The end of all the characters seems to be aging together and possibly the coming death.
An insight into the aging generation, with little ups and downs. Just like in life.
Désirée Nick shows how you can age in the book “Old White Woman”.
Monika Maron “The House”: Conclusion
It is an old age novel in the best sense.
Not just for the 60+ generation, but for everyone who has perhaps always wondered whether they want to open a retirement shared apartment.
The small conflicts make you smile, as the interested reader knows them far too well.
Dörte Hansen also creates good entertainment with “Zur See”.
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Monika Maron “The House”
2023 Hoffmann & Campe, ISBN-13 978-3-455-01642-0
Price: Hardcover €25, e-book €19.99, 240 pages (different format)
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Monika Maron
Monika Maron was born in Berlin in 1941 and is one of the most renowned writers of today.
She grew up in the GDR, moved to Hamburg in 1988 and has been living in Berlin again since 1993.
She published numerous novels and several collections of essays, which won many awards.
You can read here what it really is like in a retirement community.