Peter Stamm

Unformed Landscape

«On Sunday the pastor spoke of the water of life that poured out into the sea of eternity. Then, he said, every creature living there will swim freely. there willbe quantities of fish. Because as soon as this water comes, the salt water will heal, and everything the river touches will remain alive forever.»

«All the things he had told her. And what had she ever told him? He had never asked about anything in her life, and if she did happen to talk about it, he hadn't paid any attention. So she had ended up keeping her stories to herself. Her stories.» This is how 28-year-old Kathrine talks of her boastful second husband. In his successful second novel «Unformed Landscape», Peter Stamm follows his protagonist to a small Norwegian village north of the Arctic circle.

Kathrine works for a customs office, has an eight-year-old son from her first marriage, and can't seem to hold on to her men. In a sober minimalist tone that bears the influence of Scandinavian writers, the novel moves to and fro between the tragic and comic as it recounts Kathrine's «failures». Her search for meaning provides the backdrop for her observations, thoughts and memories, and for new friendships and experiences. Sometimes she can laugh about it all and sometimes there's nothing to do but cry. Failing to really learn anything from her exploits, her hitherto spectacular escape to Bologna by boat and plane ends in her returning to an ordinary existence with a third husband in Norway, and to the calm and patient life suited to a place where the sun sets early.

(Severin Perrig, trans. by Andrea Mason)

Translation of title: Ungefähre Landschaft

Other Press, New York 2006

ISBN: 1-59051-140-9