Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An explosive first novel-Madame Bovary set in modern Germany-about a wife and mother whose failed love affairs have driven her to the edge of sanity, and to a startling attempt at vindication.
After being jilted by a rich boyfriend, Margaret Sartoris, eighteen and heartbroken, throws herself into a comfortable but stifling marriage to Ernst, a war veteran with a penchant for routine and order, who still lives with his mother in a small German village.
It's not a bad life, considering Margaret's psychological scars, but neither Ernst's adoration nor the birth of a daughter can reawaken her frozen emotions. It's not until she slides into an affair with a married man with whom she plans to run away that her passions are stirred, but these plans are a fantasy that cannot possibly come true. The repercussions nevertheless will explode with unimaginable force in these astonished lives.
A remarkable psychological portrait, an oustanding debut novel.
"From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Elke Schmitter was born in 1961 in Krefeld, Germany, and studied philosophy in Munich. As a journalist she writes for Der Spiegel. Her first novel, Mrs. Sartoris, has been translated into thirteen languages. Her second novel, Minor Misdemeanors, was published in Germany in 2002. She lives in Berlin with her family.