As heard on BBC Radio 4 'Book at Bedtime', August 2022
Shortlisted for The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and the TA First Translation Prize. Spiegel bestseller, selected for Berlin Reads One Book 2021. Over 180,000 copies sold worldwide.
A woman approaching the 'invisible years' of middle age abandons her failing writing career to retrain as a chiropodist in the East Berlin suburb of Marzahn, once the GDR's largest prefabricated housing estate. From her intimate vantage point at the foot of the clinic chair, she observes her clients and co-workers, listening to their stories with empathy and curiosity.
Part autofiction, part collective history, Katja Oskamp's love letter to the inhabitants of Marzahn is a tender reflection on life's progression and our ability to forge connections in the unlikeliest of places. Each person's story stands alone as a beautifully crafted vignette, but together they form a portrait of a community.
