Inka Parei’s novel begins with a man who receives a startling call from his ex-wife. She’s in the hospital awaiting a cancer diagnosis. He suddenly realises he must find out whether she was contaminated in Berlin by fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Quickly returning to Berlin, he tries to reconstruct the events. He revisits and questions his memories of working in the chilling “cold centre” – the air-conditioning plant for the East German Communist Party newspaper. Did she come in contact with a contaminated truck from Ukraine? Was he a cog at the heart of the system, failing to prevent a tragic accident?

German original title

German

Inka Parei
Die Kältezentrale

Frankfurt am Main, Schöffling & Co. 2011
216 pages