The Night under the Snow

Luisa is studying to become a librarian at university, which is housed in a former arms factory in Kiel. Elisabeth is working at the officers’ mess in the port and all she strives for is a little contentedness and everyday comfort. Two women who are trying to regain control of their lives after the war. But when is war truly over for those who have experienced it? Over time, Luisa notices that there is a heaviness in Elisabeth that weighs her down and prevents her from finding happiness. She tries to stay close to her friend, after her suicide attempt and through the extreme poverty of country life, but for Elisabeth, there will always be that emptiness that stems from the winter of 1945.

In a breathtakingly written panorama of the early post-war years, Ralf Rothmann creates the portrait of a woman whose fear always gets in the way, while the suffering she has gone through robs her of any sense of the suffering she inflicts on others; of a lifelong hard-working wife and mother who dances from one carnival to another so as to never to come to her senses again, and yet one we must admire: because her will to love is expressed in her despair.

After the much-translated novels To Die in Spring (2015) and The God of that Summer (2018), the author concludes his trilogy on World War II and the post-war years in Germany with The Night under the Snow.

»[T]his last instalment is so great, so touching, so brutal, and shockingly so topical that its publication may be considered an event. […] Rothmann’s trilogy is, as if incidentally, also this: an absolutely horrific, an incredibly beautiful love story.« Adam Soboczynski, Die Zeit

»[Rothmann] shows how daring poetic storytelling approaches historical truth.« Hilmar Klute, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»The Night under the Snow, just like the two previous novels, is an impressively sensual book.« Franziska Wolffheim, Der Tagesspiegel

»So plausible, gripping and heavy the overall set-up, so brilliant the scenes, flawless realism […] as if you had experienced it yourself […]« Judith von Sternburg, Frankfurter Rundschau

»[Rothmann’s trilogy is] an outstanding work of literary historiography.« Carsten Otte, taz. die tageszeitung

»You don’t often find novels like this one, about a period that still shapes our today, in German literature – books that know how to combine wonderful language with lively and convincing stories.« Sascha Feuchert, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»A moving and ... extremely sensual and down-to-earth depiction of failing lives.« Richard Kämmerlings, WAMS

»Ralf Rothmann is a master at capturing social milieus that are usually neglected in contemporary German-language literature. ... It is no longer a secret that [he] is one of the great storytellers who does not fit into any of the usual pigeonholes. The Night under the Snow is one of his best books.« Rainer Moritz, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

»The Night under the Snow is Ralf Rothmann’s masterpiece; rarely has his poetology been so impressively realised as here.« Meike Feßmann, Deutschlandfunk

»Ralf Rothmann is a master of poetic realism. He has mastered the art of putting the unspeakable into clear words, of making it comprehensible.« Roana Brogsitter, BR

»The Night under the Snow deals with the horrors of war, which are passed down over generations, in a phenomenally overwhelming way. Rothmann surpasses himself with this conclusion to his trilogy on the war and the post-war years.« Katja Weise, NDR

»Very sensual, very atmospheric, very dense […] in all its meticulous detail. Rarely have I read anything that affects me so much and gets under my skin like these scenes […] [Rothmann] is truly a great writer, book after book.« Jörg Magenau, RBB

»The Night under the Snow draws its force [...] from the great linguistic elegance and the attention to rhythm with which Rothmann describes the dull speechlessness of his parents' generation. A terrible, terribly exciting and terribly great novel.« Ö1 Radio