Cherrypicker | Literature  Breaking the Standstill

No more ferries and no more tourists – only the remaining inhabitants still live on the former holiday island. Who save themselves in routines. And wait. Then a girl asks questions and suddenly something changes. A novel about crises of meaning and the joy of new beginnings.

Once upon a time, it was a beautiful, southern holiday island. But from one day to the next, nobody wants to relax from everyday life there. With fatal consequences, because the carefree time-out for some meant round-the-clock work, but also a secure livelihood for others. So the majority of the locals left their island home to find a livelihood elsewhere – leaving behind a good handful of people who stuck to their well-practised ways.

No Guests Anywhere

This is the starting point of Nach den Fähren, the second novel by Hanover-based author Thea Mengeler. The inspiration for her literary setting came from the Princes' Islands off the coast of Istanbul. She travelled there all year round for a while, even in winter, and asked herself: “What happens when a place like this, which is mainly used for tourism, suddenly remains ... in this low season?” And so she places her manageable – nameless – staff in the scene and traces how the caretaker, the baker, the doctor, the general's wife and a few more deal with the never-explained situation. In short chapters, the scenes are visited in which those who remain try to give their lives meaning and a framework even without their traditional occupation.  The caretaker of the “Summer Palace”, a former luxury hotel, for example, “wipes the dust off shelves and bedside tables every day, sweeps up the dirt on the floor. ... He closes the door quietly, as if there were still guests he could disturb, then opens the door to the next room.”

In Search of Answers

But soon, in one of these “next” rooms, the rigid life of the caretaker and gradually that of the other remaining islanders takes a decisive turn. Because suddenly and out of nowhere, Ada appears, and just as suddenly she disappears again. Not without asking questions first: “Why are you cleaning?” “Was it better back then?” “Have you never thought about leaving?” Finally: “Who owns the island?” These are questions that the caretaker cannot escape – and they have an effect. He opens up, talks about painful memories, says goodbye, changes things, overcomes his brittleness and practises closeness: “Later that evening, the caretaker massages the baker's shoulders, which have hardened from work.”

List of Losses

The entire novel is characterised by short, almost poem-like, very condensed chapters with the recurring title “Some Losses”. They repeatedly take stock – and the results are mixed: This narrative voice penetrates the protagonists. At some point, they realise that it is up to them to make up for their losses:

Time to Turn Back, Time to Try Something New

The crisis as an opportunity – here it is not a worn-out phrase, but actually the cipher for change and new beginnings. For a reflection on the direction of one's own life and the liberating shift of self-imposed rules that were thought to be irrevocable. All of this in a language that is unadorned and focussed on the essentials on the one hand, and lyrical and rhythmic on the other, whose special magic is irresistible from the very first page.

The Award-Worthy Work of Independent Publishers

This was also the view of the jury for the Hotlist Prize, which is awarded annually at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In 2024, it honoured Wallstein Verlag, which had published Thea Mengele's novel, her “atmospherically dense text”. In it, “no sentence, no word, no syllable is too much”. The jury members were delighted with a book of “impressive literary quality and maturity”.

The Hotlist Prize has been in existence since 2009 – a prize that exclusively honours independent publishers. Beforehand, a jury shortlists seven titles in various genres from the publishers' submissions. Three further titles are added to the illustrious list by an Internet public vote. One of the ten, often particularly artistically designed books or its publisher receives the Hotlist prize, while another publisher can look forward to a printing cost subsidy. All of this takes place as part of a public presentation during the Frankfurt Book Fair – a well-deserved honour for the literary work of independent publishers, which is often only visible at second glance. With Thea Mengeler's small, fine literary work of art, the jury has certainly fished a pearl out of the ocean of annual book production that will hopefully sparkle on many bookshelves at home.

 

April 2025