What happens to us when our home becomes a financial bargaining chip?
UNSER GLÜCK
(Our Good Fortune)
by Natalie Buchholz
Penguin Germany/PRH Verlagsgruppe, February 2022
When the young parents Franziska and Coordt find a lovely – and affordable – flat in one of Munich’s best neighbourhoods, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. But there’s a condition attached: it won’t be just them and their small boy living there. Tempted by the chance of owning their own home, and one they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford, they agree to a deal that will put their love to the test. Like a catalyst, the new flat accelerates and deepens existing cracks in their relationship, and their son, too, is aware of the increasing friction between them. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has turned out to be a trap. Will they find a way out?
Natalie Buchholz has created an irresistible story, written in clear, rhythmic prose. A novel set up like an experiment, showing the freedom that improved living conditions can bring – and the destructive power of financial pressure.
Natalie Buchholz, born in France in 1977, studied Cultural Studies and Aesthetic Practice at the University of Hildesheim and at the Université Aix-Marseille. In 2018, her debut novel The Red Swimming Pool was published. In 2020 she was awarded the Spiegelungen Prize for minimal prose.
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