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Britta Keil
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| Two Summers |
| Zwei Sommer |
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Content: |
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"'I love you' reads the message from Oliver, my boyfriend. So far so good. But - this message wasn't sent to me. The message was intended for Isabella. How nice for Isabella. Not good for Isabella: she is my best friend ... " Thus Marie begins her account of a summer that suddenly became much less sunny with that three-word text message. Marie's world is in a shambles: her best friend Isabella has betrayed her with Marie's boyfriend Oliver. Marie cancels the trip to Spain she and Isabella had planned to take, and instead decides to spend two weeks by the sea with her Aunt Doro. There she begins to see her relationship with Oliver and and Isabella from a distance. On the beach, Marie meets Janos, who proves to be the perfect remedy for her heartbreak. Janos is a guitar player and singer in a band, too - a perfect fit, since Marie loves to sing. They write a song together and dedicate the text to Isabella. Even as Marie begins to fall in love with Janos, the time for them to part is already approaching. Back at home again, Marie's thoughts alternate between Isabella and Janos, and less and less often include Oliver ... In the end, they all meet again at a concert that Janos gives in Marie's hometown. At the end Janos announces: "This summer I met a very special girl and wrote a very special song with her. If that girl is here tonight, then the next song is for her." Then Janos sings the Isabella song.
In the second half of the novel, Isabella has her say. She tells the story of her summer from her own perspective. She relates some of the same scenes, but Isabella's point of view casts them in an entirely different light. Marie's one-sided depiction of Isabella as a deceptive traitor becomes relative and readers will be tempted to feel empathy for Isabella. In the end, readers have to ask themselves the same thorny question as Marie and Isabella: does their friendship deserve another chance?
These double perspectives allow readers to examine the different perceptions of emotions and apparent roles (traitor vs. victim) side-by-side and give them equal weight. In additional to the empathy generated by reading the novel, readers are thereby encouraged to think about the relativity of truth. |
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The Author: |
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Britta Keil was born in 1980 in Erfurt, Germany and has been writing stories ever since she learned to write. At the age of nine she produced her first newspaper (14 subscribers!), and later began to write poetry, then short stories. During her study of German literature in Jena, she was an editor for a pedagogical magazine. When she isn't writing, she sings with a band. The written word is her best friend and an ongoing temptation. |
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Rights Sold: |
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Audio Rights Germany |
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