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Review: The Fire by Daniela Krien
A novel set in contemporary Germany that examines what happens to a marriage when love ages and desire fades
After a fire destroys their leased vacation cabin, a middle aged couple, Rahel and Peter, who live in contemporary Germany, find themselves on the secluded property where Rahel had spent many happy childhood summers. After years of juggling occupations, demanding children, and the boredom of daily life, they are suddenly unable to escape one other’s company. With only three weeks left, they must decide whether or not they have a future together.
What happens when love ages and desire fades? When our differences are larger than our similarities? And how simple is it to ask basic questions about our relationships? These are some of the key concerns raised in The Fire, the latest novel by German author Daniela Krien, translated into English by Jamie Bulloch.
Written in a three-part structure that represents the three weeks spent in the countryside with each chapter describing the specific happenings of a day in a week, Krien captures the daily grind with exquisite simplicity. The story immerses readers in the lives of this couple with keen observations about their relationship presented in calm and rhythmic prose. The great gift of this book, though, is how brutally honest and frank it is, without ever betraying the truth.
“She knows what it’s like out there. The highly competitive market for partners is quite demanding for those on the hunt. The “goods” are used and damaged. They have their quirks and flaws, illnesses and anxieties, and usually they’re lacking in flexibility. Those who start from the beginning again at fifty find people who’ve grown with others, been formed by others – bent into shape, trimmed and no longer prepared to bend or be bent again. Both she and Peter would want someone to take them as they are. For decades they’ve balanced each other out. They’ve come far together.”
Daniela Krien expresses the entire journey of the marriage and provides a view into the underbelly of family life with sparseness, without wasting a word in a book comprising just 180 pages. Concerned about the futures of their children, as well as a look at how their past informs the present, and the themes of love and belongingness in a marriage are sensitively explored through silences and minuscule conversations. Is love still present despite reduced intimacy and communication, or is it just a matter of getting along well enough to coexist? Krien writes about how this idea of love, happiness and finding each other with time, continues to get blurred into other forms of everyday life.
By shining a light on this couple, the author deftly illuminates modern German society, where a chasm still persists between the country’s east and west. Growing up in GDR (German Democratic Republic) or East Germany, and being part of the generation that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, Rahel and Peter still feel the effects of that history in their lives. Their daughter Selma criticises them for not having a home and, at one point in the story, refers to them as “victims of reunification”.
“Rahel never had this kind of closeness with either Selma or Simon. She could have done, but at the time nobody dragged their children around like that. They would lie in prams or bassinets, and later stand in playpen until they could walk. This was the early nineties when in the East Germany there were more important things to do than carry babies around. They should be happy they were born at all! The dip in the birth rate after the collapse of the GDR was dramatic. Of Rahel’s former classmates many had only one child and some had none at all.”
Daniela Krien writes skillfully and with compassion, insight, and wisdom about family dynamics. An outstanding read, The Fire reaffirms her status as an accomplished novelist deeply engrossed in the complexities of interpersonal relationships.
Hritik Verma is an independent reviewer. He blogs at allayingart.wordpress.com. He is @Hritik38233434 on Twitter and @allayingart on Instagram.
