What is reality? This question is explored in fascinating style in this inventive, finely-drawn novel, which touches on language, the social construction of meaning, the relationship between things, events and our existences, and the way in which we try to make sense of all these in words.

Yet here is no abstruse treatise but a story in the true sense, an acutely observed comedy of manners, and an often amusing depiction of human hypocrisy, narrow-mindedness and fickleness.

The chain of events the book describes is set in motion by the death of Adomeit, an enigmatic and maverick old man in a small village in the Wetterau, just north of Frankfurt, in which everybody knows everybody else’s business, or thinks he does. The entire story is reported second-hand, or even third-hand, by the narrator, whose role is simply to relay the information, speculation and rumour passed on by a young friend of Adomeit’s as they wait in the queue at the local health insurance office. The entire German text is in the subjunctive of reported speech, thus distancing the reader from what is being described and warning him that the version of the events he is hearing is not necessarily the only one. The key to ›truth‹ is language, and language is seperate from ›reality‹. Stories develop their own dynamic as Adomeit’s death, funeral and the reading of his will interfere with and subsequently influence other narrative strands within the village. The movements, machinations and arguments of a host of disparate characters are gleefully reported and discussed by the multitude of the ever-present, all-seeing locals.

This is a stylish, elegant and entertaining piece of work, containing elements of the detective novel – who is interested in Adomeit and his will, and why? – and ending with a scene in which one of the young characters seizes a fake weapon in the local pub and is reported in the press as the attempted instigator of a murderous rampage. A case of existential confusion? Who can tell? Read and make your guess. new books in german, autumn 2000

The Room