Elly
Translated by Lyn Marven
Overview
A missing child is a nightmare for any family. But what happens when they come back?
Eleven-year-old Elly is missing. After an extensive police search she is presumed dead, and her family must learn to live with a gaping hole in their lives. Her parents’ marriage is torn apart by grief, while her sister Ines swings between jealousy and guilt.
Then, four years later, Elly reappears. Her strange behavior is initially put down to the trauma of what has happened to her, but soon her family is plagued by doubts. Elly’s grandmother is sure this is not her granddaughter and her sister tests her with childhood games and memories, but her mother cannot bear the thought of losing her child again, and her father just wants the family back together again.
Is this dark-eyed stranger really the same little girl who went missing? And if not, who is she?
Elly is a gripping tale of grief, longing, and doubt, which takes every parent’s greatest fear and lets it play out to an emotionally powerful, memorable climax. It is a literary novel with all the best qualities of a thriller, and a fascinating exploration of how well we can ever truly know one another or ourselves.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Rights held
- Paperback
- 5.1in x 7.8in
- 144 pages
- 9781950354191
- USD$15.00
- 2 June 2020
- World English
Categories
Awards
- Longlisted for the 2021 CWA Dagger award for Fiction in Translation
Praise
“This is a very impressive novel, subtly layering great depth of feeling and meaning in very few words and those simply presented … [H]aunting and evocative, leaving the brain mulling over thoughts and questions even when the book is back on the shelf. It should be brilliant for book clubs that explore people, families and emotions.”
About the Author
Maike Wetzel was born in 1974 and works as a writer and screenwriter in Berlin. She studied at the Munich Film School and in the UK. The manuscript of her first novel, Elly, won the Robert Gernhardt Prize and the Martha Saalfeld Prize.
Maike’s short stories have been translated into numerous languages and received multiple awards.
Translator
Lyn Marven is a translator from German specialising in contemporary literature, women’s writing, and short stories. Her previous translations include Maike Wetzel, Long Days (Comma Press, 2008), Berlin Tales (OUP, 2009), and Larissa Boehning, Swallow Summer (Comma Press, 2016). Lyn is Senior Lecturer in German at the University of Liverpool, researching contemporary literature in German, with a particular interest in Berlin literature.