1000 Coils of Fear

Olivia Wenzel

'I have more privilege than any person in my family. And I'm still screwed.' From award-winning author Olivia Wenzel comes a captivating and unsettling literary debut about race politics feminism motherhood nationality and enduring love.

A young woman attends a play about the Berlin Wall coming down and is the only Black person in the audience. She is sitting with her boyfriend by a bathing lake and sees four neo-Nazis approaching. In New York she witnessed Trump's election victory in a strange hotel room.

Angry and passionate the narrator looks at our rapidly changing times and also tells the story of her family: her mother who was a punk in East Germany and never had the freedom she dreamed of her absent Angolan father and her twin brother who died when they were seventeen.

Emotional and funny Olivia Wenzel writes about loneliness and finding joy in life within the roles that society assigns you. 1000 Coils of Fear is a highly original novel both powerfully poetic and full of surprises.

What readers are saying about Olivia Wenzel:

'Opens your eyes about what it means to be different... This book is a must.' Reader review 5 stars

'Captivating... She doesn't hide anything that's the lasting impression of this impressive relentless tender novel.' Faz

'Ingenious... I can only highly recommend the novel to you.' Reader review 5 stars

'No other German-language novel describes so impressively how Germany can often feel for marginalised people.' ND Aktuell

'Arguably last year's best German novel.' Los Angeles Review of Books

'Always exciting and even entertaining.' SWR2

'Everyone should read this book... One of the best books of 2020.' Deutschlandfunk Kultur

'Funny despite the dark foundation... The work of an author who admirably stubbornly confronts her traumas.' Woz

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