New release
Ready for the island: Caroline Wahl’s “Wind Force 17”
The writer Caroline Wahl publishes her new novel “Windkraft 17”. photo
© Jens Kalaene/dpa
After her surprise success “22 Bahnen”, Caroline Wahl writes the moving portrait of a young survivor.
It is rare for several publishers to compete for the manuscript of an author who has never published a book before. And that the debutante is so successful with her first litter that she can now make writing her bread and butter. This is exactly the dream for Caroline’s choice came true. The Rostock-based author (born in 1995) immediately made it onto the bestseller lists last year with “22 Bahnen”.
The book trade chose the novel about a pair of sisters growing up in adverse family circumstances as their favorite book of the year. The critics celebrated it as true to life, hard but heartfelt. All fans of the book will be happy that the sequel is now being published.
The adult Ida is the focus of the story
While the first novel was about the older sister Tilda, the focus in “Windforce 17” is on the now grown-up Ida. The sisters’ childhood and youth are darkened by the single mother’s severe alcoholism. Tilda is forced to grow into a surrogate mother role for her younger sister. But when the math enthusiast gets a doctoral position in Berlin, Ida is left alone with her sick mother.
She increasingly withdraws from the bleak situation at home. She studies literature, starts writing, and travels with her girlfriend. Then one day the catastrophe: When Ida returns from a trip, she finds her mother dead in the bedroom, dying as a result of her addiction. The daughter feels deeply guilty: “I’m a bad and weak shitty daughter. I was a bad and weak shitty daughter, and now I’m just alone.”
The island of Rügen as therapy
Ida flees to the island of Rügen. What initially looks like a mindless panic attack turns out over time to be a kind of therapy in which Ida not only learns to say goodbye for good, but also to deal with feelings of anger and guilt. She meets sensitive people who recognize her vulnerability and take her under their wing. Ida also encounters love, even when it is fragile. And she meets the sea, which has a very special meaning in her healing process. As in “22 Lanes,” swimming plays a central role in the book. Only here everything is a dimension wilder, bigger and more dramatic.
The scenes of Ida’s fight against the sea are among the best the novel has to offer: “Today it’s easy to find a rhythm. I give the sea everything I have, so that my body becomes warm and empty, crawl further and further, further into the open space than ever before, the thoughts and the pain run out of my body, into the quiet Baltic Sea, and I wonder if she is loud and screaming now.” And at another point: “Every time I swim into the sea, I give it the opportunity to sweep me away, to kill me, and it doesn’t. I give it credit for that.”
Character development away from stereotypes
Ida is vulnerable and prickly, angry and awkward, she offends people, but always cautiously reaches out. Deep down, this young woman is as resistant as she is sensitive. Their complexity is developed in rather quiet scenes. Caroline Wahl takes time for her characters and refuses to stereotype.
All of the personalities in her novel are differentiated, right down to the supporting roles. There is no simple black and white either. Even the alcoholic mother who makes her daughters’ lives miserable is shown as a person with endearing sides. The novel is serious, but not at all depressing. He also gives hope, and above all he lacks any weariness with life.