Recommended by the Reviewers Club
Winner of the 2023 Dublin Literary Award, and translated from the German, this is a delightful study of the idiosyncrasies of a group of clients attending a chiropodist’s clinic. This is the true story which relates how the author, a failing writer, decided on reaching middle age on change career and become a chiropodist in Marzahn, a Berlin suburb once the GDR’s largest prefabricated housing estate.
The author writes with warmth and empathy in her observations of the mostly elderly residents that she treats, and each story is told with humour and poignancy, thereby vividly brining her characters to life. An interesting and unusual premise but highly readable.
4/5 Stars