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Annette Pehnt
Insel 34
(Island 34)
Piper Verlag, August 2003. 189 pp. 'I didn't want to explore the world - the islands were enough for me.' Islands 1 to 34 lie along a neglected coastline, a scattering of tiny dots on the map. Island 34 is furthest away from the mainland, isolated and cut off from the rest of the world. Nobody visits it, and almost nobody has written about it. Until one day a young woman decides to follow her dream… The protagonist of Insel 34 is a gifted teenager who succeeds at everything she does. But this does not satisfy her parents: what use is it to excel at everything, when you are passionate about nothing? And so their daughter develops a passion - a strange but all-consuming passion for a forgotten group of islands. Her grades drop, she puts on weight, and her skin becomes pasty, but her father is content. He observes her obsession with satisfaction, organizing family holidays to the coast and buying his daughter books. When she scrapes enough marks to go on to university, she decides to study geography: undertaking research about the islands, she is able to devote herself to her passion night and day. But soon it is not enough for her to read about the islands: she determines to visit Island 34, and is prepared to overcome all obstacles - parents, boyfriends and professors - in order to get there. But there are no boats to the island, and she must make her way slowly via 28 to 33, where the shores of Island 34 finally come into view.
The young woman's search for the islands is not just a quest for utopia. It is also a story about growing up, leaving parents behind, and breaking ties. Written in a dry, laconic tone, this charming book is quietly brilliant. When the heroine leaves Island 33, the reader is sad to see her go.
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