Marzahn, Mon Amour

WINNER OF THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2023. As heard on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime , August 2022Shortlisted for The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and the TA First Translation Prize. Spiegel bestseller, selected for Berlin Reads One Book 2021. Over 180,000 copies sold worldwide. A woman approaching the invisible years of middle age abandons her failing writing career to retrain as a chiropodist in the East Berlin suburb of Marzahn, once the GDR s largest prefabricated housing estate. From her intimate vantage point at the foot of the clinic chair, she observes her clients and co-workers, listening to their stories with empathy and curiosity. Part memoir, part collective history, Katja Oskamp s love letter to the inhabitants of Marzahn is a tender reflection on life s progression and our ability to forge connections in the unlikeliest of places. Each person s story stands alone as a beautifully crafted vignette, but together they form a portrait of a community.