Only the Others are Immortal

Tarik and two other men disappear without a trace on the MS Rjúkandi, a ferry on the North Atlantic. Two women, Iva and Tarik’s partner Marlin, set out to find their missing friends – and board the ship to Iceland firmly convinced that they will soon be home again. But in the first days onboard, they begin to notice strange things and a weird atmosphere: The crew is incredibly good-looking, the captain always seems to be carrying a bag full of guilt with him, despite all his grandeur and coolness, and what the hell is wrong with that bartender? As it turns out, the crew and some of the passengers are »cursed« – they stay forever young and carefree, but they cannot leave the ferry. Tarik and his mates have succumbed to this curse and Mila and Iva also give in to the temptation of staying onboard forever. But very quickly Iva realizes that this might have been a mistake, as there is a lot that she has had to leave behind.

In the following, we learn whether Iva manages to get back on land. Which part the captain could play in that. And if the goddesses of the ocean, who comment everything from offstage, will let Iva go in the first place.

In an inimitable laconic style, Simone Buchholz tells a story of friendship and love, of the finiteness of life and the infinity of the ocean, and of Iva and Malin, who suddenly find themselves in a parallel world with no exit, where everything they thought was important in life suddenly no longer counts.

»›Her language was down to party‹, the novel says about Iva at one point, and the same is true for Simone Buchholz, especially when things get romantic or poetic ...« Eva Behrendt, taz am wochenende

»In [Only the Others are Immortal] the author once more treats us to convincing imagery. The novel is downright enlivened by it and takes readers along on a tension-filled journey.« Magazin Köllefornia

»Simone Buchholz likes to be irreverent. She has never cared about genre limitations and in [Only the Others are Immortal] she cheerfully combines all sorts of things once again: a little bit of horror, historical novel, love story, courtesy visits by characters from Greek stories about gods and heroes, and amongst it all a bit of poetry. … And all of it merges with ease...« Die Presse

»With Only the Others are Immortal, Simone Buchholz has written a wild ballad on immortality that is as versatile as the characters who appear in it.« Andrea Gerk, WDR 3

»If James Joyce and Bruce Willis had a literary daughter, her name would be Simone Buchholz.« Bayern 2 on River Clyde