This book really wasn't for me

I had tried reading this book a couple of times, when it was first longlisted for the Booker Prize, before deciding to try the audiobook and I still couldn't really connect with the characters or the writing style. The way this book was written simply made me not care about these people for some reason.

I was keen to listen to the audiobook, Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck. I have to say that I had not heard of the author before, but the fact that the author was the winner of the International Booker Prize made me even more interested in reading the book.

I have a keen interest in Cold War History and an interest and also the collapse of Communism in Europe. Having the opportunity to read a book set in East Berlin in 1986 certainly ticked a lot of boxes for me.

Katerina lives in America and discovers that Hans, a much older man whom she had a relationship with for a number of year when she was nineteen years old has died. He has bequeathed her two boxes of documents. She reviews the documents which chronicle their doomed-relationship.

It’s expertly narrated by Lisa Flanagan. That said it took me a while to listen to listen the audiobook. As the book progresses I found it quite a challenging read listening to the power play of the relationship, the emerging coercive control that Hans had over Katerina. I found myself wishing that Katerina would leave Hans and would need a break from the book before I could revisit it. The content was complicated and a bit bleak - but it was well written.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, W.F. Howes Ltd, for making this e-audio-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This was a love story older married man and young girl, always a predicable story line with family ties, maturity and making huge leaps of faith thrown into the mix. What i enjoyed most was the geographical landscape of the time the story was set in. Berlin, east v west, politics and struggles with new found freedom, the social history was very factual and absorbing. Very well written and entwining the two story lines into one was well crafted and made for a wonderful read. I liked the characters and could visualise them well, i think. Narrated well and brought the book alive. Thank you #NetGalley for the audiobook to review.

This is a brilliantly written book. The narrator is perfect for the piece and kept me absorbed in it for the entire length of the recording. Having said all that, this is a hard read/listen. Starting at the beginning we discover that a man called Hans, who was the lover of a woman called Katharina, has died. He leaves her two boxes of papers, which she unpacks and investigates over the length of the remainder of the book. This chronicles their affair, from when the 37 year old Hans meets the 19 year old Katharina, until it ends some years later. Their relationship is charted against and is a metaphor for the gradual decline of the regime in East Berlin where they live, and the opening up and integration with the West. Another layer investigates the idea of myth and ancient storytelling through allusion and metaphor and sometimes the patterns of Greek tragedy and theatre.

Some people have called this a love story. I don't think that's what this is. It is a study of control and the illusory nature of the self or selves. I found Hans and Katherina's relationship a difficult one, particularly when things start to go wrong. It's abusive and coercive and dangerous. The nature of Erpenbeck's writing gives you as the reader/listener nowhere to go except into the relationship with them. It becomes more and more isolated and intense, darker and smaller until, like the Berlin Wall, everything starts to come down.

Kairos is a phenomenal story that grabs you from the very beginning. It was extremely well narrated and performed. Cassettes are a central element of the plot and hearing them read aloud gives a brilliant additional emotional dimension to the novel.

“This, she thinks, feels like getting on a sleigh and setting off down a mountainside, which you know will end in an abyss.”

Kairos is a suffocating book of sorts and yet there is a lot of beauty - like the ruins of the past. Set in Germany around the unification of East and West Germany, there is a lot of history and politics woven into this story of Katharina and Hans (or vice versa).

The book starts out when Katharina hears about the death of an ex-lover. The book goes back to the beginning of an all consuming romance between a 19 year old Katharina and Hans who is ten years older - than her dad. She is not sure what is happening to her except she is falling for this older man - sometimes a teacher. Their clandestine affair is peppered with double standards and exertion of power through acts of emotional cruelty.

When she has an one-night stand with another man, all hell breaks loose. We are forced to sit through the abject misery Katharina is made to endure at the hands of a jilted Hans. Tapes recording abuse are sent to her and she dutifully hears them to assuage her guilt. She can't live without him she says.

The oppression and politics of a romance gone sour are equally applicable to nation states. In parallel, there is a backdrop change as East and West Berlin have stirrings of unrest and people, especially the younger generation are migrating. Hans carries the stigma of the WWII and his father is a proponent of the decadence that prevails in East.

As the past crumbles so does the present in both tracks. "the abolition of a pitiless world (is achieved) through pitilessness” she says. The old ruins are replaced by newer ruins - not the ideal happy ending. And yet, the bleakness of it all, leaves you feeling hollow.

The alternating POV between Hans and Katharina achieves the balance of perspectives. The masochism in the relationship can be unsettling.

In a way it does for the unification, what "Reader" by Bernard Shlink did for the concentration camps. Haunting and tough read.

What a story; intense, bleak and so beautifully written, I was spellbound from start to finish.. I’m not familiar with this author, but I’ve recently read a couple of books translated from German by Michael Hoffman and feel his translation is sympathetic and captures the original meaning of the text. The narration throughout is superb too.

This is a story which leaves questions. It’s a haunting tale of love, loss betrayal and more. Very much character driven, it explores a relationship between Katherine and Hans. They meet by chance in East Berlin in 1986. She’s 19 and single, he’s 53, married with a son. There’s an instant attraction and the whole relationship which follows is set against a political backdrop of the fall of communism. An intense affair develops into a darker, obsessive and controlling relationship which is claustrophobic and Kathaina’s dreams fall apart.

All human life is here and Jenny Erpenbeck manages a perfect juxtaposition of political disintegration alongside personal crisis. It’s a long time since I enjoyed a book so much and it’s one which has left a haunting shadow as I reflect on the content. I rarely revisit books, but this is one I’ll go back to. I’d love to give this 10 stars.

When a book makes you sob you know it’s a good one, haven’t cried as much since One Day or Shuggie Bain. I didn’t see the ending coming and I thought about it for ages afterwards. I really enjoyed this read even though it made me cry lol. The premise of the book and the deep level of insight into the characters makes it a superb listen.The writing is superb and really hooks you in. I listened on audio and I’d defo do more from this author on audio or paper. Unsurprisingly an award winner! Easy 5 stars