Nora
2006, fiction, Rowohlt Berlin
Two lives collide—two women meet who, at first glance, don’t seem to have much in common:
Nora, in her mid-forties, left Germany two decades ago to move to New York and doesn’t want to commit to a relationship.
Amy, a young American woman, who has a picture-perfect marriage living in a New Jersey suburb—until her husband is killed in the attack on the World Trade Center.
After the attack, Nora is plagued by old, suppressed fears and she realizes that the past isn’t actually past. Her life, too, was once thrown off course by an act of terror. As serendipity brings her and Amy together, her empathy and identification with a stranger becomes an obsession. She wants to know what will become of Amy and starts following her. Nora becomes her stalker. Pia Frankenberg tells a vivid and sensitive story about the power of the past and the fragility of happiness.
A novel about blows of fate and assertiveness—and about the destructive and salubrious power of love.
“The reason I wrote this book was to escape from the political turmoil. I’m interested in how it actually affects people when something like this happens to them. I’m interested in the individual.
”Pia Frankenberg
Reviews
“A very well told ‘American’ book by a German author.
”Deutschlandradio “Büchermarkt”
“Frankenberg dispenses with a verbose description of the events. Concisely and unpretentiously, she describes how Nora watches the shattered pieces of the buildings on television and, at some point, a report about a young widow in New Jersey. The author refrains from sensationalist writing and doesn’t revel in her characters’ misfortune. Instead, she draws interesting parallels between the hysteria about terrorism in 1970s West Germany and the tense social climate in the United States after the attacks. It is about the scarring left by traumatic events, about difficult mother/daughter relationships, and how arduous it is to cope with everyday life after extreme experiences. The one-sided female relationship is also cleverly utilized as an element of tension. Nora is a story of a metamorphosis. In the end, something new begins for both women.
”Neue Zürcher Zeitung
“Strangely enough, there’s something comforting about this book, which is dominated by somber subject matter. Quite casually, without pointing any preachy fingers, the author makes it plain that there’s nothing better on offer than life as it is.
”Hamburger Abendblatt
“What Nora actually wants is to be Amy’s guardian angel; she wants this woman to overcome her suffering. That naturally also has something to do with self-healing.
”Pia Frankenberg