Our Endless Numbered Days

This novel is dystopian, technically, since it ties in with many other post-apocalyptic titles. It's Fuller's brilliant debut novel, but it has become more relevant again, as it's quite possible that we are seeing a surge of people fantasizing about getting away from it all, retreat from this present-day civilized mess. This is a story of "surviving" in very harsh conditions. In a Natascha Kampusch sort of way. However, the author says the story was inspired by Ray, a teenage boy who appeared in Berlin in 2011 saying that he had been living in the German forest for the past five years (all made up, of course)./// You have to be quite open to the willing suspension of disbelief. Even in the seventies, how likely would it have been that a couple of "hermits" in a forest cabin in the middle of Europe would have gone undiscovered for nine long years? But it's close to a fairy tale, and also no coincidence that the little girl whisked away into the wilderness by her own father, a so-called "retreater", takes on the name of "Punzel." /// It's a brilliantly constructed novel with a distinct build-up, fantastically atmospheric and suspenseful. /// In the audio version, the protagonist's German mother was painfully stereotypical with her strong accent, grammar mistakes and Wagnerian attitude. At one point in the text, it takes a bit of a comical turn: "I open the bedroom window and call to an old man walking down the street. He takes a long time to look around him and find who is shouting. 'Ich habe ein Baby!' I yell, and only when another contraction has passed do I reaIize I have been calling to him in German." Ah well. A German native would have shouted "ich bekomme ein Baby" for "I'm having a baby", of course. It's a little detail. Don't let it deter you from reading this book. That, and the very unfortunate cover design of the mass market paperback. What is it with all the female silhouettes (depicted mostly from behind) these days? /// Surprisingly, this book has not been translated into German yet.