Pretending to Sleep

The building where Yasemin lived until recently is no longer standing. It had to be torn down after an explosion caused by Vito, Yasemin’s ex-boyfriend. The only thing left of the apartment she had been sharing with him are memories. Their shared history stretches all the way back to their childhood. The two of them grew up in the same high-rise complex, and at 13, Yasemin fell in love with her 16-year-old neighbour. Having been fascinated by spirituality since she was a little girl, she tries to win Vito’s heart with a love spell. But after a stay in a sanitorium to treat her scoliosis, she draws away from Vito. She’s too alienated from her own body, too ashamed of the corset she has to wear clamped around her torso. It’s not until 20 years later, when her laboriously straightened spine threatens to buckle again, that the two of them cross paths once more. Yasemin takes this belated flickering of young love for a stroke of fate. But then Vito reveals the gaping, menacing void inside of him.

Pretending to Sleep is a story about an attempted femicide – but also about a woman seeking to free herself from the clutches of a violent, controlling partner, and from the oppressive constraints placed on her by society.

»Pretending to Sleep tells of much more than just one violent relationship. Without recourse to political buzzwords, the author manages to produce a highly political novel, which palpably illustrates how a single body can be inscribed with the stories of other women…« Jolinde Hüchtker, Die Zeit

»The literary tone in which the story of a misogynistic act of violence is told is at once gentle and powerful. […] Pretending to Sleep is a disconcertingly relevant book that eschews polemical theses and slogans. Rather, in her literature, Deniz Ohde develops an aesthetics of existential contradictions.« Carsten Otte, Der Standard 

»So much recognition for a debut can be a burden for a young author, particularly since the second book is supposed to always be the hardest. Deniz Ohde has lived up to those expectations.« SWR2