Author(s): Hubert Mingarelli; Sam Taylor (Translator)

Novel | Historical | Germany | Fiction Reductions

From the author of A Meal in Winter and Four Soldiers, a poignant story of war, trauma and its aftermath.

Dinslaken, Germany. July 1945. The war is over, and the allied forces are beginning to assess the damage. Among them, is a war photographer. As the rest of the press corp return home, he finds himself reluctant to leave and, in the company of the young and sensitive driver he has been assigned, he sets out to photograph ordinary German people in front of their homes. As the pair continue their journey, it becomes clear that the young driver has his own reasons for not wishing to return home.

Told with Mingarelli's trademark restraint and elegance, this is a tense, tender story of the emotional and moral repercussions of violence.

Author Biography: Hubert Mingarelli is the author of numerous novels, short story collections and fiction for young adults. Four Soldiers won the Prix Medicis and was longlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International. His novel A Meal in Winter was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The Invisible Land was his last novel. He died in 2020.

Sam Taylor is a translator, novelist and journalist. His translated works include Laurent Binet's award-winning novel HHhH and Leila Slimani's Lullaby. His own novels have been translated in 10 languages.