Sky Blue

A Novel
Suhrkamp | Insel

Sky Blue / Das Blaue vom Himmel
A Novel
The debut novel from prize-winning essayist and playwright, Magdalena Schrefel
What if it were possible to cool the Earth, but the sky would forever lose its blue? Hannah is working for an exhibition that is supposed to collect memories of this blue shortly before a global geo-engineering process will take place. Sulphur particles will be launched into the stratosphere, changing the way that sunlight is refracted. Seas and rivers will fade, and the Blue Planet will be tinged a milky grey. »Can you describe the blue?« Hannah asks the people she sits across from with her...
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What if it were possible to cool the Earth, but the sky would forever lose its blue? Hannah is working for an exhibition that is supposed to collect memories of this blue shortly before a global geo-engineering process will take place. Sulphur particles will be launched into the stratosphere, changing the way that sunlight is refracted. Seas and rivers will fade, and the Blue Planet will be tinged a milky grey. »Can you describe the blue?« Hannah asks the people she sits across from with her recorder: a filmmaker, a botanist, her older sister Vera. Hannah delves ever deeper into the memories of these people, who all find themselves under the one roof on the day of the exhibition opening. And suddenly, Hannah’s father Jakob shows up. He was part of the first environmentalist movement, raised both his daughters alone – and he too has a story to tell, one that Hannah knew nothing about.

Sky Blue tells of how changes of historic relevance are reflected on the personal level. About losing things and saying goodbye, and about preserving what is precious to us, whether it's treasured objects or the people we love.
2026, 330 pages
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Magdalena Schrefel, born in 1984, studied European Ethnology in Vienna and Creative Writing in Leipzig. Her play Ein Berg, viele premiered at Schauspiel Leipzig, was produced as a radio play by Bayerischer Rundfunk and awarded the Kleist Advancement Award 2020. Brauchbare Menschen was her first publication with Suhrkamp Verlag. Das Blaue vom Himmel is her debut novel.
Magdalena Schrefel, born in 1984, studied European Ethnology in Vienna and Creative Writing in Leipzig. Her play Ein Berg, viele premiered...

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Greece (World Books)