Peter Henning

A family consisting entirely of "faint-hearted people", failures, sick people, ordinary people reduced to helplessness, hypochondriacs, adulterers - all loosely grouped around a centre, old Johanna, who no longer is the centre, because the family disintegrated into unrelated atoms long ago. (...) Henning feels the cracks in the routines "of a German family" and discovers the horror beneath.
While a violent storm is raging outside, knocking down houses and uprooting trees, gathering new strength and breaking out again, that is to say, while Henning uses everything he has in his remarkable paint box to depict the disaster of the elements, the faint-hearted people are occupied only with themselves and with the paralysing stillness. They are put under pressure and Henning virtuosically raises this pressure page by page. They must grapple with marital problems, operations, job crises and the loss of love, and even have to deal with debt-collectors’ threats – but then, what is a gangster’s pistol in comparison with bleeding gums in front of the bathroom mirror. (...) Peter Henning has succeeded in writing a brilliant novel of vain attempts at making a new start – right to the dark final chord. He has written a novel of the times, in a world emburdened with fears of the future and unfulfilled promises.

Matthias Matussek: "Die Stille im Sturm"
© Der Spiegel 36/2009, page 140, 31 August 2009