Unter Schnee (Snowed Under) is an episodic novel composed of thirteen connected short stories. The action takes place in a small eastern European ski resort called Harrachov during the chaotic period following the fall of the Wall. Though the rapid process of "Westernization" has already begun making inroads into the sleepy town, traces of the defunct socialist regime cannot be erased from its residentsÆ memories or their way of doing things: The postmaster continues to "inspect" letters even if the old secret service has long since been deposed; a barkeeper blackmails a West German investor so he can finance a trip around the world; the last and only teen-ager in the town searches for a new identity over the internet; and finally there is Raik, a young entrepreneur who canÆt get anybody to buy his store mannequins, because he was an opposition leader and still behaves as though he were an outcast. 
 Each of the many townÆs residents and vacationers observe the two protagonists: Evy (from the East) and Vera (from the West) who have come to the resort for a weeklong ski holiday. Their relationship, already on the brink of collapse, threatens to break completely when the two find themselves unable to leave the mountain village during a snow storm. We learn about Evy and Vera through the alternating perspectives of a handful of town residents, each with their own story and each affected by the historical upheaval of the post-Wall period. Though Strubel seems to be telling a love story, her topic is about the loss of nation and identity. Having lived through the rupture of a social system and country that suddenly disappeared (even if the people and places remained the same) Strubel, who was fifteen when the wall fell, observes the East / West friction through a double perspective—the failed utopia of socialism which she views with distrust, and an empty affluent west that she regards with skepticism.

SNOWED UNDER

Literature & Fiction

Antje Rávic Strubel

Contemporary

Red Hen Press

Adina wuchs als letzter Teenager ihres Dorfs im tschechischen Riesengebirge auf und sehnte sich schon als Kind in die Ferne. Bei einem Sprachkurs in Berlin lernt sie die Fotografin Rickie kennen, die ihr ein Praktikum in einem neu entstehenden Kulturhaus in der Uckermark vermittelt. Unsichtbar gemacht von einem sexuellen Übergriff, den keiner ernst nimmt, strandet Adina nach einer Irrfahrt in Helsinki. Im Hotel, in dem sie schwarzarbeitet, begegnet sie dem estnischen Professor Leonides, Abgeordneter der EU, der sich in sie verliebt. Während er sich für die Menschenrechte stark macht, sucht Adina einen Ausweg aus dem inneren Exil.\nDer Roman von Antje Rávik Strubel, »Blaue Frau«, erzählt aufwühlend von den ungleichen Voraussetzungen der Liebe, den Abgründen Europas und davon, wie wir das Ungeheuerliche zur Normalität machen.

Blaue Frau: Roman

Literary

S.Fischer

Fremd Gehen.

Mare Buchverlag GmbH + Co

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Books by Antje Rávic Strubel