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Liminal
A thrilling, filmic immersion into Berlin's legendary club scene - a skillfully told novel about the fragility of life.
Berlin, Görlitzer The body of a young woman in a white wedding dress floats in the canal. Who is she, and where does she come from? Suspended drugs investigator Tommy trawls Berlin's clubs and criminal clans to uncover the woman's story.
On his odyssey through the city, he meets survivors and fighters, the lost and stranded from all over the from the Japanese tattoo master to the Indian fire-eater. Wide awake and dead tired, suspended between a dreamscape and reality, Tommy dives deeper and deeper into the Berlin underworld and into his own past.
A breathless noir novel that is as hard-hitting as it is emotional, exploring the fragility of life and our longing for community.
PRAISE FOR One Clear, Ice-cold Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century
"A highly original and often hypnotic work . . . exactly the type of book that readers in search of striking European voices should embrace" John Boyne (author of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS), Irish Times
"A brilliantly kaleidoscopic morality tale"- Eileen Battersby, Financial Times
"A magnificent achievement, a novel of terrific originality" - Charlie Connelly, New European
"The exhilarating narrative is wonderfully concise, and the imagery is intensely cinematic" - Barry Forshaw, Guardian
Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch
Berlin, Görlitzer The body of a young woman in a white wedding dress floats in the canal. Who is she, and where does she come from? Suspended drugs investigator Tommy trawls Berlin's clubs and criminal clans to uncover the woman's story.
On his odyssey through the city, he meets survivors and fighters, the lost and stranded from all over the from the Japanese tattoo master to the Indian fire-eater. Wide awake and dead tired, suspended between a dreamscape and reality, Tommy dives deeper and deeper into the Berlin underworld and into his own past.
A breathless noir novel that is as hard-hitting as it is emotional, exploring the fragility of life and our longing for community.
PRAISE FOR One Clear, Ice-cold Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century
"A highly original and often hypnotic work . . . exactly the type of book that readers in search of striking European voices should embrace" John Boyne (author of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS), Irish Times
"A brilliantly kaleidoscopic morality tale"- Eileen Battersby, Financial Times
"A magnificent achievement, a novel of terrific originality" - Charlie Connelly, New European
"The exhilarating narrative is wonderfully concise, and the imagery is intensely cinematic" - Barry Forshaw, Guardian
Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch
194 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 11, 2023
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16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 21, 2025
Man, I am really on a run of not great books lately.
This is a mercifully short incoherent mess that doesn't really have any point at all. It also comes across like the author has no real experience with drugs, which makes his decision to write a book where drugs feature so heavily a very overconfident one.
Big fat no thanks!!
This is a mercifully short incoherent mess that doesn't really have any point at all. It also comes across like the author has no real experience with drugs, which makes his decision to write a book where drugs feature so heavily a very overconfident one.
Big fat no thanks!!
January 4, 2025
This was unlike anything I have ever read before.
This English translation of a German novel is incredibly cinematic. I was immediately captivated by the vivid descriptions of the protagonist’s surroundings. Schimmelpfennig does a great job of using the senses to make you feel like you are there experiencing his stories alongside his characters. The fragmented thoughts of the protagonist mirror his deteriorating state and disorientation. This tale of morality acts as a cautionary tale surrounding the dangers of drugs.
The experience of reading this felt almost like a fever dream.
I will note that I failed to see the significance of the fortune cookie fortune even though it is repeated quite a few times in the first half of the book. Using the fortune as a symbol throughout the whole book may have made this more powerful.
This English translation of a German novel is incredibly cinematic. I was immediately captivated by the vivid descriptions of the protagonist’s surroundings. Schimmelpfennig does a great job of using the senses to make you feel like you are there experiencing his stories alongside his characters. The fragmented thoughts of the protagonist mirror his deteriorating state and disorientation. This tale of morality acts as a cautionary tale surrounding the dangers of drugs.
The experience of reading this felt almost like a fever dream.
I will note that I failed to see the significance of the fortune cookie fortune even though it is repeated quite a few times in the first half of the book. Using the fortune as a symbol throughout the whole book may have made this more powerful.
October 24, 2023
I originally was going to give this book 4 stars, but then, the more I read, the less it made sense.
4 stars - interesting concept, not seen another book which explored it
3 stars - lost the poetic nature it started out with and far too many coincidences. A girl with no name or identity and yet every character the protagonist knows is linked to this person….hmm
2 stars - she was beaten to death by a man who seemingly had no reason to, and even the book explained what a down to earth, reasonable and caring guy he was. He didn’t seem to trap her, he was just trying to help and she didn’t communicate she needed some space but all of a sudden that angers him enough to get people to grab her off the street and beat her…hmm.
4 stars - interesting concept, not seen another book which explored it
3 stars - lost the poetic nature it started out with and far too many coincidences. A girl with no name or identity and yet every character the protagonist knows is linked to this person….hmm
2 stars - she was beaten to death by a man who seemingly had no reason to, and even the book explained what a down to earth, reasonable and caring guy he was. He didn’t seem to trap her, he was just trying to help and she didn’t communicate she needed some space but all of a sudden that angers him enough to get people to grab her off the street and beat her…hmm.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews