Waves

He has become a father for the second time. One night his little daughter won’t stop crying, the next he wonders if she is still breathing. During the day he finds himself amidst nappies and bottles and his older child’s Playmobil. And while his wife is the main breadwinner, he dreams of living in a big house by the sea or of sex with other people. He is overwhelmed as a father, insecure as a man. Why does he find it so difficult to fit into his role? What are the dark sides of his masculinity, what potential for anger and violence lies dormant in him? With his child in his arms, he searches for answers and finds moments of love, closeness and happiness.

Waves is a novel about the ups and downs of a young father’s everyday life, an examination of the miracle of life and the love for one’s child. It’s the story of a modern man striving for equality in a society where old ideals and gender relations still prevail. Heinz Helle’s most personal book to date and a highly poetic text of great power and topicality.

»Heinz Helle writes sentences that seem to float in their depth of focus.« Paul Jandl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

»Helle‘s radical self-exposure wants to leave nothing out, doesn’t want to keep silent about anything out of shame.« Richard Kämmerlings, WAMS

»Even for an author like Helle, who has certainly taken up themes of his own life ... Waves lets his readers ... get very close to the author. This is also due to Helle’s unique, insistent sound« Meredith Haaf, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»... sophisticated and direct. The vulnerability the first-person narrators show is moving ...« Ekkehard Knörer, taz. die tageszeitung

»If men wish for equality in a society in which old ideals and gender relations still prevail, then it is best to do so as sensitively and poetically as Heinz Helle.« Geistesblüten

»Waves is a sensitive and profound reflection on fatherhood, traditional and new role models and, last but not least, on love... The long sentences that Heinz Helle writes skilfully, never meandering but sprawling to the point of musicality, create – despite all the restlessness that drives the narrator – support as well as harmony.« Wiebke Porombka, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

»Heinz Helle gives his sentences a rhythm that represents the back and forth between hearth and cot, the ups and downs between annoyance and happiness, between the banal and the philosophical, the oscillation between escape fantasies and affection. ... Waves is a declaration of love to his wife and daughters, the offer of a conversation for society and an impressive self-reflection.« Mareike Ilsemann, WDR 5

»Heinz Helle offers readers opportunities for identification and points of reference for their own considerations ...« Emily Grunert, Lesart