A dissection of family and motherhood – biting and with piercing wit

JESOLO
by Tanja Raich
Blessing, March 2019

Children are not an issue for Andrea. She has a job that is OK. For many years she has been in a relationship with Georg which is OK. And every year they have a nice holiday in Jesolo. As far as the future is concerned, Andrea doesn’t want to commit herself, but Georg would like a foundation for a life together. There seems to be no way out of this dilemma. Upon returning from a holiday together everything changes – Andrea is pregnant. Torn either way, Andrea decides to keep the child – and in doing so makes one compromise after the other: she takes out a loan although she never wanted to borrow money from the bank; she moves into the house of her parents-in-law although she never wanted to live under one roof with them. Andrea is showered with advice and forced into a maternal role she never saw as hers and cannot identify with.

Tanja Raich has published in various literature magazines and anthologies and has been awarded a number of prizes and scholarships, including the Start-Stipendium of the Austrian Federal Chancellery for her « Jesolo » project, the Frontiere – Grenzen literature prize, the Rom-Stipendium of the Austrian Federal Chancellery and the Exil-Literaturpreis.