Hansjörg Schertenleib

Wald aus Glas

«She took the list out of the book, but did not unfold it until she was sitting at the desk again: passenger steamer / glass cabin / Indonesia / SS Senior Assault Unit Leader / garlands / scoundrel / bees’ hum / boiler suit / exit visa / precious objects / canary / mosquito»

In «Forest of Glass», an old woman and a young woman meet. One is in search of her happier past, while the other flees from a future she fears. The two women could not be more different.
Roberta Kienesberger is seventy-two years old and has lost everything. They even took away her dog before putting her in a nursing home. But she resists and runs away. She rescues her dog and begins a journey from Switzerland back to Austria. She wants to return to her parents' house.
She wants to take control of her own life again. In secret, she plans her escape from the nursing home. She buys a small tent, hiking boots, a sleeping bag: everything she needs to return to her birthplace on foot.
On the way, she meets fifteen-year-old Ayfer, who was born and raised in Switzerland. Ayfer's parents have sent her back to Turkey, where she has to work in her uncle's hotel on the Black Sea. There she is forced to confront the strict religious beliefs of her aunt and uncle. Ayfer, too, plans her escape in advance. «I am like a stone that is alive, she thought, a reptile waiting for the right moment, the moment it can't afford to miss.» Now she is on her way back to Switzerland.
Roberta and Ayfer will briefly cross paths. And they will recognise each other as kindred spirits – in spite of the great differ- ence in their ages.

(Martin Zingg, trans. by Marcy Goldberg)

Recommended for translation by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia:
www.12swissbooks.ch

Translation of title: Forest of Glass

Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 2012

ISBN: 978-3-351-03503-7