As of: March 6, 2024, 3:25 p.m
By: Michael Schleicher
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Dana von Suffrin packs the big truths into seemingly trivial things.
The Munich writer's second novel, “Again from the Front,” is now being published.
© Markus Götzfried/Münchner Merkur
Dana von Suffrin has presented her second novel, “Again from the Beginning”.
In it she tells of a family quake between Munich and Tel Aviv.
Our criticism:
Oh man, this woman really doesn't have it easy.
But rarely has the excessive demands been so comprehensible and so blatantly felt as in that moment when Rosa unnoticed her father as he cried and apologized to the family dog for his tantrum.
The daughter was helpless, helpless and probably a bit fascinated by her father's emotional outburst - and “didn't know what to do, so I did what I usually did: nothing at all, I didn't move or notice everything to me.”
Dana von Suffrin debuted with “Otto” in 2019
It is above all the last half-sentence that reveals a lot about Rosa Jerusher, the first-person narrator in Dana von Suffrin's new novel.
Five years after “Otto”, the Munich writer’s highly acclaimed debut, “Again from the Front” is now being published.
In it, Rosa describes the history of her family: her father has died, she has to clear out the apartment and somehow re-establish contact with her older sister Nadja, who decided a long time ago to do her own thing.
It's not like Rosa doesn't have enough construction sites of her own.
But she remembered a lot of things - not just her dad crying on her four-legged friend's neck.
Dana von Suffrin, born in Munich in 1985 and holds a doctorate in history, unfolds the panorama of a family in which things sometimes shake violently.
Centrifugal forces are not only provided by the characters themselves, who are strong, but also quite stubborn.
All the longings and (disappointed) hopes of the parents and their two daughters are not solely responsible for the fact that a lot of things are thrown into disarray.
The passage of time tugged and pulled violently on the Jerushers - von Suffrin therefore cleverly looks back through history again and again.
Dana von Suffrin will read at the Munich Literaturhaus on April 23, 2024
“Again from the beginning” is an enchanting portrait of an actually terribly nice German-Jewish family - although, please, no one should forget the Mischpoke in Israel!
At the same time, however, the author touches on something deeper and finds existential elements in the lives that she presents to the readers: Above all, Rosa's thoughts revolve around her father, who was always self-sufficient and therefore preferred to be alone.
“And his second favorite thing was to brood, because that was just how his mind worked, the sad thoughts came to him much faster than the good ones, and he said that was a Jewish trait and that was how all his ancestors lived.”
That could have been terribly difficult or annoying.
None of that applies to this book, however, because von Suffrin writes with great composure and a wonderful sense of the humor and absurd comedy of our lives.
The author packs the big truths with impressive skill into banalities such as her mother's hand mirror, which Rosa looks into until tears stream down her cheeks.
Because “no one ever reminds us how short time is, so we never have the opportunity to pause and consider it precious, after all, we are busy trampling each other, being offended, or having migraines “.
And so this remarkable novel makes it clear to us that – in the bigger picture – its title is a wish that will remain unfulfilled.
Information about the book:
Dana von Suffrin: Again from the beginning”.
Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne, 235 pages;
23 euros.
Reading:
Dana von Suffrin will present her book on April 23, 2024, 7 p.m., in the Munich Literaturhaus, Salvatorplatz 1;
Tickets by calling 0761/888 499 99 or here.