Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck

 


Booker Prize:  Winner International Booker 2024

Plot Time and Place: Berlin, immediately before and after the fall of the Wall

Opening sentence:  "Will you come to my funeral?"

Plot summary:  "An intimate and devastating story of the path of two lovers through the ruins of a relationship, set against the backdrop of a seismic period in history." (from thebookerprizes.com)

Review:  At first I enjoyed the love story, with the description of life in the DDR in the background. But the book is way too long, and the story loses its magic. It gets tiresome and depressing.

Rating: 3/5

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