skin
skin
skin
skin
skin
and somewhere up
a round moon.
That’s the whole text that fills page 107 of Elisabeth Steinkellner’s new book for young people. But no, “Esther and Salomon” is not a volume of poetry. No, it’s not a conventional youth novel either. This book is a literary and visual experiment – a successful one.
The little text here is distributed over the pages in free verse with plenty of space. This is reminiscent of Anne Weber’s award-winning novel “Annette, a heroine epic”. The text is also supplemented by pictures – photos from an instant camera in the first part, which Esther tells; Drawings in the second part, which Salomon tells. There is a lot of empty, white space between everything. Air to breathe deeply for the reader, air for your own thoughts.
Because you can and must make your own thoughts at many points in this story. The side with the skin and the moon, for example – it alludes to the first more intimate encounter between the lovers Esther and Salomon. They are both 14, they met in a holiday resort, they escaped from their hotels in the evening to meet. Sexuality is not explicitly expanded here, but subliminally it is of course vibrating – this is only mentioned because the German Bishops’ Conference recently disliked the handling of sexuality in Steinkellner’s previous novel “Papierklavier”, among other things; she vetoed when the jury of the Catholic Children’s and Young People’s Book Prize wanted to award the Austrian writer.
Steinkellner will get different prices, and hopefully she will not be put off. Because in the end, the focus is on completely different topics. Above all, the question of the power of feelings: How do relationships develop in today’s often fragile families? Your protagonist Esther suffers from the separation of the parents, which becomes threatening on family vacation. All the more she finds support with her five-year-old sister Flippa, through whom she meets Salomon and his little sister on the beach. In Solomon’s family, too, it is only gradually becoming clear that nothing is the same as it used to be. His mother fled with him after his father’s murder from a country that was not precisely named, and many traumatizing experiences have settled in him. In the second part, the effects are clearly told in all their severity – apart from in drawings, sometimes also in letter form.
If it has to be, this author is definitely explicit – her fine textual fabric oscillates in a harmonious balance between what is said and what is only hinted at. The poem form is well suited to sharpen crucial moments, to mark gaps. The photos and drawings create additional anchor points or additional spaces for the imagination. And for surprises: An instant photo in the middle of the book shows, or so it suggests, Esther and Salomon. Half of the face is white, half of his face is dark – a picture is worth a thousand words. But even in words, this book asks the really important questions succinctly and clearly. For example:
How can
Worry and longing,
Sadness and happiness
just so close
lying together?
Elisabeth Steinkellner: Esther and Salomon. With photos by the author and drawings by Michael Roher, Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck and Vienna 2021, 334 pages, 19.95 euros (from 14 years)