review
A poignant, witty novel about memory, home and the painful process of letting go, ‘Seclusion’ follows a woman as she prepares to sell the country house that has shaped her adult life.
Returning to her beloved but dilapidated second home in eastern Germany after a long absence, the unnamed narrator resolves to clear decades of accumulated possessions before finally putting it on the market. The house becomes a repository of memories as she sorts through cupboards, gardens and forgotten corners, recalling the collapse of her marriage, the raising of her children, later love affairs and the family relationships that have defined her life. Years earlier, determined to sell the property for the first time, she had hired Alla and Bolek, a resilient Moldovan-Polish couple, to restore the neglected house and garden. Their extraordinary efforts transformed the property so completely that she abandoned the sale. Now, over a decade later, she returns to finish what she began.
As the narrator revisits her memories, the house itself becomes a silent companion, bearing witness to decades of emotion and reinvention. The practical task of clearing and repairing the property gives way to reflections on inheritance, ageing and belonging. Alla and Bolek emerge as unforgettable characters whose humour and hard-earned optimism spotlight the novel’s exploration of migration, class and the lingering social divides between East and West Germany. The emotional power of the novel comes from its accumulation of everyday moments that reveal how deeply people become connected to the places they inhabit.
Structured as a series of fluid, associative recollections, ‘Seclusion’ moves effortlessly between present and past, allowing objects and architectural details to unlock whole chapters of the narrator’s life. Menasse writes with characteristic intelligence, blending conversational warmth, understated melancholy and flashes of sharp comedy. The result is an elegant meditation on the ways in which houses preserve memory long after relationships have faded, and on the liberating, if painful, act of saying goodbye.
Following the international success of Dunkelblum (Darkenbloom, tr. Charlotte Collins, Scribe UK, 2024), Menasse once again demonstrates her remarkable ability to weave intimate personal stories into a broader reflection on contemporary Europe. ‘Seclusion’ will appeal to readers of Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy and Elizabeth Strout’s My Name Is Lucy Barton for its psychologically astute narrator, while its exploration of architectural memory and the lives embedded within a single house recalls Jenny Erpenbeck’s Visitation.
Find out more: https://www.kiwi-verlag.de/verlag/rights/book/eva-menasse-alleinruhelage-9783462002621
Rights sold: Netherlands, (Atlas Contact).
All recommendations from Autumn 2026