Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Katharina's husband isn't coming home for the weekend--again--so she's on her ow n. When their chaotic daughter Helli has a nosebleed, Kat has to dash off to school to pick her up.
Then their son, Alex, announces he's bringing his new girlfriend home for the first time. Kat's best friend from college is coming around tonight too, and she's wondering if she should try to seduce him-but first she needs to do the shopping, the vacuuming and the laundry, deal with an exploding clothes- dryer, find their neighbor's severed thumb in the front yard and catch a couple of escaped rodents.
When she's got all that sorted, perhaps she'll have time to think about the thing she's been trying not to think about-the lump she's just found in her breast. Because you can't just die and leave a huge mess for someone else to clean up-can you? And wasn't there supposed to be more to life than this?
Mareike Kr gel lives in Schleswig-Holstein with her husband and their two children. She has received numerous literary awards, including the Friedrich Hebbel Prize. Look at Me is her fourth novel, and the first to be translated into English.
Synopsis
The violent outbursts and unpredictable behavior of 11yo Helli have put an end to her mother's dream of continuing her career. Katharina holds on to her sanity by making lists for herself - lists of things that remind her she's more than a chauffeur and crisis-manager. Her older son, 17yo Alex, seems to hardly need his mum these days. Katharina's husband, Costas, has taken a job three hours' drive away in Berlin. Kat can hardly remember what it was like to choose her own destiny. But two weeks ago she found a lump in her breast, and suddenly she's wondering--what would she leave behind, when her time on earth ended? Has she become invisible in the service of her family? Katharina's reflections on her past, amid the hilarious chaos of the ever-challenging present, lead her to an unlikely act, that will ensure she is, finally, seen.