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Benjamin Lebert
Der Vogel ist ein Raabe
(The Bird is a Raven)
Kiepenheuer & Witsch, August 2003. 128 pp. Benjamin Lebert's dark but engaging second novel is about stories within stories. Paul and Henry, both in their early twenties, meet on board a night-train from Munich to Berlin. They have been allocated to share a sleeping compartment, and, as they settle in for the journey, the two young men start to talk. In the hours that remain until they reach Berlin, Henry tells his story -- a tale of an unlikely love triangle… Henry is heading to Berlin in order to escape from Munich and his only true friends, Christine and Jens. Henry suffers from chronic diarrhoea, Christine is anorexic, and Jens is a compulsive eater. The dysfunctional trio were close friends, drawn together by feelings of exclusion and loneliness. But things got out of hand when the two men started competing for the affections of Christine. After narrowly escaping an untimely death, Henry fled the city in a panic, leaving his friends and the carnage behind him. Paul listens attentively to Henry's tale. Henry's narrative has taken up all but twenty pages of this short book. Then Paul begins to tell own story -- not out loud to Henry, but silently to the reader. He tells of a lap-dancing club, a brothel, and a prostitute called Mandy. Paul pays one last visit to Mandy before he leaves the city, but what he does in that time is not divulged. When the two young men arrive in Berlin, Paul tells Henry that they can never be friends. As they stand talking in the station, two men approach Paul and announce that he is under arrest for having strangled a prostitute. The novel closes with Paul's parting shot to Henry: 'I'm not a storyteller like you.'
This is a clever and fast-moving book written by a very young and talented author. It is a disarmingly honest coming-of-age story with a powerful sting in its tail.
'One to read again and again.' Star Magazine on Crazy
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