Threads in Dew: Stories

by Katja Bohnet

One of the last things you might expect to find coming out of Europe is gritty noir that would give even the best West Coast authors a run for their money. Raw, brittle, dystopian - Katja Bohnet's stories reveal the darkest corners of the human experience, in language that could hardly be more sparse and lethal. A young man, stabbed and wondering why God is living in a room down the hall from him in a third-rate hostel. A couple wandering around an indefinite space between worlds. A woman whose fear of flying escalates sharply in an airplane lavatory. A couple of young adults on an idyllic island in the Pacific, overshadowed by a predatory surfer. A psychopath seeking their next victim while trying to figure out how to best self-medicate. With moments of sparkling lyricism, Katja invites us to embrace the rich spaces created by blurring the boundaries between crime, horror, and speculative fiction. But be sure to buckle your seat belt. The ride is a bumpy one that you won't so easily forget.

27 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 28, 2017

Reviews

[Rowena Hoseason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of half a dozen short stories is like a needle: sharply honed, painfully to the point. None of them make for comfortable reading: in a few brief pages they deliver a disconcerting and discordant viewpoint from a series of snapshot situations.

This is genuine contemporary noir which breaks boundaries and refuses to be restrained by storytelling norms. Translated from the original German these tales can be both blunt and bold, simultaneously gruelling and intensely liberating.

We learn little about the protagonists apart from their immediate predicaments. Author Katja Bohnet sums up the often nasty reality of international backpacking in less than a page: sleeping on stained mattresses infested with bedbugs, aching all over from walking with the weight of worthless possessions. An unlikely place to meet your maker. An unpleasant tale.

They scrape and grind on the sense, these stories, carving out a niche somewhere between noir and despair; sour, unforgiving observations of a world which doesn’t care much for the pitiful people which populate it. This is powerful writing, but the overall effect is far from pleasant.
8/10

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[Ana María · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this sample platter of random moments in the human experience, both likely and unlikely. Would love to read more of her work to get more of a sense of the breadth of her ability. Much promise here: off-kilter and meta with a touch of the bizarre.