'I have more privilege than any person in my family. And I'm still screwed.' From award-winning author Olivia Wenzel comes a captivating and unsettling literary debut about race, politics, feminism, motherhood, nationality and enduring love. A young woman attends a play about the Berlin Wall coming down and is the only Black person in the audience.She is sitting with her boyfriend by a bathing lake and four neo-Nazis show up.In New York, she witnesses Trump's election victory in a strange hotel room and later awakes to panicked messages from friends.Engaging in a witty question and answer with herself, the narrator looks at our rapidly changing times and tells the story of her family: her mother, who was a punk in East Germany and never had the freedom she dreamed of and her absent Angolan father. But in the background of everything is the memory of her twin brother, who died when they were nineteen.Emotional and funny, Olivia Wenzel writes about loneliness and finding joy in life within the roles that society assigns you. 1000 Coils of Fear is a highly original novel both powerfully poetic and full of surprises. 'So exuberant, inventive, brainy, sensitive and hilarious that it's like a pyrotechnic flare illuminating the whole woman, past and present, radiant, unique, a voice and a novel to take with us into the future.' FRANCISCO GOLDMAN, author of Monkey Boy 'Bold and exceptional . . . Her impressive writing, born of a brilliant mind, surprises - stylistically, and by its frankness and associations . . . I rode in the passenger seat, beside the beauty and strangeness of 1000 Coils of Fear.' LYNNE TILLMAN, author of Men and Apparitions and Mothercare 'An audacious and disturbing novel.' MICHELLE DE KRETSER, author of Scary Monsters 'An exciting, confident debut.' Publishers Weekly 'Impressive, relentless, tender.' Faz
Show more'I have more privilege than any person in my family. And I'm still screwed.' From award-winning author Olivia Wenzel comes a captivating and unsettling literary debut about race, politics, feminism, motherhood, nationality and enduring love. A young woman attends a play about the Berlin Wall coming down and is the only Black person in the audience.She is sitting with her boyfriend by a bathing lake and four neo-Nazis show up.In New York, she witnesses Trump's election victory in a strange hotel room and later awakes to panicked messages from friends.Engaging in a witty question and answer with herself, the narrator looks at our rapidly changing times and tells the story of her family: her mother, who was a punk in East Germany and never had the freedom she dreamed of and her absent Angolan father. But in the background of everything is the memory of her twin brother, who died when they were nineteen.Emotional and funny, Olivia Wenzel writes about loneliness and finding joy in life within the roles that society assigns you. 1000 Coils of Fear is a highly original novel both powerfully poetic and full of surprises. 'So exuberant, inventive, brainy, sensitive and hilarious that it's like a pyrotechnic flare illuminating the whole woman, past and present, radiant, unique, a voice and a novel to take with us into the future.' FRANCISCO GOLDMAN, author of Monkey Boy 'Bold and exceptional . . . Her impressive writing, born of a brilliant mind, surprises - stylistically, and by its frankness and associations . . . I rode in the passenger seat, beside the beauty and strangeness of 1000 Coils of Fear.' LYNNE TILLMAN, author of Men and Apparitions and Mothercare 'An audacious and disturbing novel.' MICHELLE DE KRETSER, author of Scary Monsters 'An exciting, confident debut.' Publishers Weekly 'Impressive, relentless, tender.' Faz
Show moreOlivia Wenzel, born in Weimar in former East Germany in 1985, read Cultural Studies and Aesthetic Practice at the University of Hildesheim and now lives and works in Berlin. She writes drama and prose and makes music as Otis Foulie. Wenzel's plays have been performed at leading theatres like Munich's Kammerspiele, Hamburg's Thalia Theater, Deutsches Theater Berlin and Ballhaus Naunynstrasse. Alongside her writing, she runs workshops for children and young adults. 1000 Coils of Fear is her first novel.
So exuberant, inventive, brainy, sensitive and hilarious that it's
like a pyrotechnic flare illuminating the whole woman, past and
present, radiant, unique, a voice and a novel to take with us into
the future.
*FRANCISCO GOLDMAN, author of Monkey Boy*
Bold and exceptional . . . Her impressive writing, born of a
brilliant mind, surprises - stylistically, and by its frankness and
associations. An uncompromising consciousness leaps from sentence
to sentence, city to city, in love, depressed, alienated, afraid,
and contradictory . . . I rode in the passenger seat, beside the
beauty and strangeness of 1000 Coils of Fear
*LYNNE TILLMAN, author of Men and Apparitions and Mothercare*
Wenzel debuts with a powerful portrait of a woman finding, losing,
and rediscovering herself in 21st-century Germany . . . Her simple
but affecting story is told through scattered memories and personal
histories . . Captivating . . . An exciting, confident debut
*Publishers Weekly*
An audacious and disturbing novel
*MICHELLE DE KRETSER, author of Scary Monsters*
German musician, performer, and playwright Wenzel makes an
auspicious fiction debut . . . A prismatic novel, thoughtful and
unsettling
*Kirkus Reviews*
Impressive, relentless, tender
*FAZ*
A strong debut, a touching family story
*rbb Kultur*
A debut novel as layered and melodic as any symphony or opera.
*Ms Magazine*
Wenzel's unique literary voice carries the reader through
meditations on origins, grief, racial identity, love, and
belonging.
*Booklist*
I was sucked in by Olivia's distinct style, biting yet swirling. In
a bristling translation from Priscilla Layne, the cool, understated
prose expresses so much of what goes unsaid about the weight of
history, how you are perceived as you move through the world and
the choices that come with deciding how you want to live.
*Tice Cin, author of KEEPING THE HOUSE*
Wenzel writes with humour and emotion about loneliness and finding
joy in life within the roles society assigns you
*Bookseller*
Experimental in form, this is a demanding but absorbing novel on
the themes of race, feminism, motherhood and love.
*Daily Mail*
Personal, political and wildly experimental
*Big Issue North*
Wenzel's nuanced thoughts about injustice, marginalisation and the
checking of privilege are timely and important, and the dashes of
surreal, undercutting humour ... are refreshing ... [An] elegant
translation ... cohesive, considered, emotive
*Guardian*
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