Quite early in the novel, the narrator says to his mother in a key phrase: “None of your stories are made up. That’s why they’re so good.” But what it doesn’t say is that everything happened exactly like that, and the good stories are the ones you experienced yourself. But the most interesting stories are the ones that didn’t happen to you. At least not in the way people thought. Or because you’ve been hoping all your life that they will happen, until hope turns to regret. This is exactly what “Mama Odessa” tells about. About the missed opportunities, half truths, whole lies, about the longing for the places where one should actually be, Israel instead of Germany, Munich instead of Berlin, Odessa instead of Hamburg, and about the greatest longing of all, forever and ever: the one for of literature.
Maxim Biller’s novel “Mama Odessa”: Half truths, fine lies – culture
