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Marlene Röder
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| In the River |
| Im Fluss |
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49,000 words / 302,000 signs |
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Content: |
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Sixteen-year-old Mia and her parents move to a rural area. Mia hates living in the country, her parents who forced this new life on her, and especially herself. In her new school she plays the cool, unapproachable one. Then she meets the brothers Jan and Alex, who live next door. They live with their father and their grandmother; their mother left the family many years ago to travel the world as a photographer. Alex, two years older, is a handsome and cheerful guy. Mia immediately feels attracted to him, and after hesitating for a long time, she finally does become involved with him. But there is always an invisible barrier between the two of them, and Mia withdraws when Alex gets too close to her. His younger brother, Jan, is a dreamer and storyteller who spends hours at the nearby river, and seems to live in his own world. Mia is fascinated by him because he is so gentle, and entirely different. There is no romance between the two of them, but a deep affection. Jan belongs to Alina, a mysterious girl that no one has ever seen, but whom he meets almost every day on an island in the river.
One day Jan takes Mia with him to the island and - in a moment fraught with emotion - they kiss. From that moment on, strange things begin to happen. Mia finds half-rotten fish, first in her yard and then in her bedroom. She discovers footprints in the yard many times, later in Alexander's house, too: small, bare feet. While swimming in the river at night Mia has the feeling that someone tried to pull her underwater.
When Alex urges Mia to sleep with him one day, Mia snaps. She tells him that she has kissed his brother. Deeply hurt and angry, Alex leaves the house and the three of them stop speaking to each other.
One day Alex is ice-skating on the frozen river - and falls through the surface. He fights for his life, but realizes that he will never make it out of the hole in the ice alone. Then, suddenly, he has the feeling that someone else is in the water with him, a woman, who tries to pull him into the depths with her. At the last moment, Jan is able to rescue Alex.
After this, Mia finally finds the courage to tell Alex more about her, and even to clarify what happened with Jan. A terrible family secret also comes to light: Jan's and Alex's mother committed suicide in the river when her sons were still young, trying to take the little ones in the water with her. Their father, not able to tell the truth, told everyone that Katharina had left the family ...
The story is told in the first person, alternating between the perspectives of Mia, Jan, and Alex. This brings readers especially close to the characters and generates a special tension through the changing viewpoints, which only reveal the truth gradually. The ice-skating scene, with which the novel actually begins, plays a special role and reappears throughout the narrative. The identity of the narrator is only disclosed at the very end, leading to tremendous suspense. |
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The Author: |
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Marlene Röder, born in 1984, has exceptional narrative talent. Her first novel, In the River, was awarded the Hans-im-Glück prize by the city of Limburg even before it was published. The major German weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" judged: "Stylistically, Marlene Röder is without doubt in a class with the great role models of the post-war period, such as Heinrich Böll or Gabriele Wohmann." |
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Rights Sold: |
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French worldwide |
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