Karen Duve Dies ist kein Liebeslied (This is not a Love Song) Eichborn, August 2002. 288 pp. ISBN 3-8218-0683-4 It is 1996 and Anne Strelau is sitting on a plane bound for London, heading towards the man she has loved since her teens. Having tired of the pretence of living 'normally', she has given in to her 'madness' and decided to confront the object of her passion, Peter Hemstedt. In fact, there is little that is 'normal' about Anne. Most obviously, at 112 kg, she is grotesquely overweight. Dies ist kein Liebeslied, narrated by herself, is the story of her ups and downs: of her unhappy childhood, her miserable adolescence, and the start of her obsession with her weight. 'The decision to embark on the first diet is a decisive, if not the most decisive, step in a girl's life', she decides. 'In any case, it is more important than the hugely overrated event of losing your virginity'. First anorexic then bulimic, she measures her self-worth in kilos and boyfriends. Then she falls for handsome, successful Hemstedt. When her love is not returned, she fakes 'normality' and gets a job. But still nothing works. 'I have reached a point', she records in her mid-thirties, 'where I no longer believe in anyone or anything, apart from chocolate'. She tracks down Hemstedt and, improbably, they sleep together. And as they have sex, Anne feels that her story is only just beginning: 'It's only now that I'm becoming real, and the terrible emptiness that stretches out behind me does not affect me'. Which, for her, will be enough. As Hemstedt lies sleeping, she packs her bags and leaves. This tale is a piece of grand guignol with a difference. Duve's sense of the ridiculous undercuts the pathos of Anne's lonely obesity and reflects the events of her earlier life through the lens of her adult disappointment and cynicism. Swapping a female for the male of her first novel Rain, she also engages a wider context, from wars and ecological disasters to passing fashions. The result: chic lit with a thick coating of grime and fat.