Love in Five Acts by Daniela Krien

Synopsis

Bookseller Paula has lost a child, and a husband. Where will she find her happiness? Fiercely independent Judith thinks more of horses than men, but that doesn’t stop her looking for love online. Brida is a writer with no time to write, until she faces a choice between her work and her family. Abandoned by the “perfect” man, Malika struggles for recognition from her parents. Her sister Jorinde, an actor, is pregnant for a third time, but how can she provide for her family alone?

Love in Five Acts explores what is left to five women when they have fulfilled their roles as wives, mothers, friends, lovers, sisters and daughters. As teenagers they experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall, but freedom brings with it another form of pressure: the pressure of choice.

Review
Love in Five Acts was origionally written in German and has been translated by Jamie Bulloch. This book tells the story of five very different women, looking at their roles as wives, lovers, mothers, friends, sisters and daughters. All five of the women are connected, almost like six degrees of separation, but all have very different experiences in life.

The book is split into five parts, each part the story of one of the women looking for love. Paula, trying to cope with the death of a child and the breakdown of her marriage, finding it hard to move on. She was the character whose story stayed with me, the tragedy is every parents worst nightmare and I found her husband difficult and cold at times. Judith is on internet dating, but prefers her horse to most men. I loved her no nonsence attitude to life, unwilling to settle for second best. Brida is divorced but co-parenting with her ex husband. She is clinging to the last vestiges of her marriage, unable to move on. Finally there are sisters Malika and her sister Jorinda, Malika betrayed by a lover finding herself alone and without children, whilst her sister is pregnant with a third child she doesn’t want. What I loved about their stories was that they realised they could work together and support each other and be a family in their own right. Each story links to the next creating a natural flow to the book, whilst still keeping the individuality of each character.

This is a fairy short read, but it did take me longer that expected to read it. This was due to the wonderful and throught provoking prose and the individual voices of the five characters. Daniela Krien really captures the many different nuances of women, their relationships, and how one size doesn’t fit all; we are all looking for something different in our quest for love. In reading about all five women, I found myself relating to the feeling and situations these women found themselves in, and Daniela Krien shows their strenght and fragility in equal measure.

Love in Five Acts is a fascinating read into the minds of five individual women, all looking for love and acceptance. Daniela Krien’s beautiful writing captures the femininity of these women, their strengths, weaknesses and the different types of love they are looking for. Jamie Bulloch’s translaton should not be forgotten, nothing seems to be lost in the translaton, keeping the essesnce of the book. Beautifully written, with emapthy and understanding for some very difficult issues, this is a compelling and fascinating read.

I would like to thank Quercus Books for my copy of the book in return for my honest review.