Martin Mosebach’s novel opens with a young couple enjoying a moment of carefree intimacy. Then the young woman asks her lover a fateful question: What was your life like before you met me? What sounds innocent, carries toxic seeds of jealousy. The answer grows into an entire book, an elaborate house of cards, filled with intrigue, sex, betrayal, exotic birds and far-flung locations. Set against the backdrop of Frankfurt’s affluent suburbs, this elliptical tale of coincidence and necessity unfolds through a series of masterfully constructed vignettes which come together to form a scintillating portrait of the funny, tender and destructive guises that love between two people can assume.

Link to Onleihe

German original title