Episode 3: Reading in the times of Corona – the pandemic novel full of glimpses and 1200 pages of tome happiness
Angela Wittmann has the end-time novel for the third episode of BRIGITTE books "My Name is Monster" by Katie Hale selected: A woman with the nickname "Monster" has survived a disaster, isolated in a seed vault in Arctic Spitsbergen. There was a war with bombs contaminated with a pathogen. A deadly disease broke out, bred in the laboratory. It may not sound encouraging, but it is by no means as dark a dystopia as Cormack McCarthy's "The Street". And even if the setting is a bit like in the series "The Walking Dead", then at least there are no zombies at the start. The dead are dead. And Monster is very alive and a person you don't have to be afraid of. Even if you're a young girl and maybe the last survivor besides monsters … There's a lot of goodness in this book. A great longing for closeness and humanity that will be fulfilled. And with it hope. Even a fresh start and a better world. And how the 30-year-old English author tells it in her debut novel is very special. Despite the archaic force of this story, Katie Hale has a very own tone, a poetic delicacy that unfolds a comforting power. That is why we can now read this book very fearlessly at the time of Corona.
Meike Schnitzler has 1200 pages of reading happiness "Mirror and Light" by Hilary Mantel: Fans of Mantel's award-winning novel series about the Tudor period had to wait eight years for the final third volume. There is nothing to spoil: the historical fate of Thomas Cromwell, the closest advisor to Henry XIII, is not a secret (he was executed in 1540), but like the English author this man and his time in which a life is nothing and power everything counted, resurrected is sensational in the usual way. No wonder, as Mantel identifies with her hero, who, like her, climbed to dizzying heights from precarious origins. Mantel will hardly crash, the third Booker Prize could come soon.
The podcast: BRIGITTE books
In the "BRIGITTE books" podcast, cultural editors Angela Wittmann and Meike Schnitzler discuss their favorite beauties every two weeks. Listen to them here third episode on.
Episode 2: Gripping history and a short family novel with wums
In the second episode of BRIGITTE books, Angela Wittmann recommends: "Vardø – After the Storm" by Kiran Millwood Hargrave: It is historically guaranteed that on Christmas Eve 1617 a storm devours the 40 fishermen on the island of Vardø. The women are left with three old men, the children and the pastor. The novel tells how they fight for survival on the northeastern tip of Norway. 1621 shows that the edge of the Arctic is also the end of civilization: A brutal witch hunt ends with a historically proven process. In the eyes of the church and the king, it would have been more appropriate for the widows to starve. Those who take their lives into their own hands must be in league with the devil. Or has it conjured up the storm itself? Kiran Millwood Hargrave places a literary memorial to the victims.
Meike Schnitzler has "The Meaning of the Whole" by Anne Tyler selected: Micah Mortimer is a somewhat cranky, medium-young man – at home he runs a strict regime with vacuum cleaner and floor mopping days, otherwise he saves the computers of old women with his computer company: "What did he break?" – "This question should be answered in the Never make a connection with computers. ”Micah himself does not ask any questions about life, but when suddenly a young man is on his threshold looking for his father, disorder comes into the reliable structure. Anne Tyler manages to transform a person who is unspectacular at first glance into a fascinating literary figure.
The podcast: BRIGITTE books
In the "BRIGITTE books" podcast, cultural editors Angela Wittmann and Meike Schnitzler discuss their favorite beauties every two weeks. Listen to them here second episode on.
Episode 1: This Spring's Best Two Novels About Growing Up
Ten years ago, bestselling author David Nicholls made the world laugh and howl with “Two in One Day”. Now this spring he has published a new novel about the very first love. A great book to start the literature podcast in BRIGITTE books, Meike Schnitzler finds, “Sweet Sorrow " of the British authors: In 1997, boy from difficult backgrounds meets confident middle-class girl in Shakespeare theater project. In his fourth novel, the Nicholls turns this tight constellation into a gorgeous coming-of-age story. It tells of a time in life in which everything seems possible, in which a summer lasts forever – and the great love determines even longer.
Angela Wittmann is enthusiastic about Thomas Brussig's “The Transformed”: Fibi and Aram were pubescent animals before they came out again as raccoons after a “challenge” in the wash of a tank on the flat land. What comes next is an animal-funny and very snappy satire on human nature and the hunger of social and other media for "Racoon Content".
The podcast: BRIGITTE books
In the "BRIGITTE books" podcast, cultural editors Angela Wittmann and Meike Schnitzler discuss their favorite beauties every two weeks. Listen to them here first episode on.
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