Bavaria at the time of the Enlightenment: Johann Balthasar Landsberger travels to a remote village on behalf of the elector to solve mysterious deaths. Allegedly, the village sailor was killed by highwaymen. After her death, it rains fish, two young boys had an accident under strange circumstances. The villagers are convinced that she brought the sea lady as a “follow-up” to avenge her murder.
Sailors used to be responsible for washing and dressing the dead. “So that everything goes right, until the dead man has come from the deathbed to the grave,” says Stefan Dressler’s novel. When the dashing, elegant Landsberger, a “snazzy man”, rode into the village on his big black horse, some suspected that things would not end well for them. The villagers don’t appreciate the scout at all, their conversations leave no doubt about that. Dressler places the dialogues between the often very short chapters, the titles of which usually represent the first sentence of the text section. The people who talk about the events and other villagers are not introduced by name, they remain anonymous. But they comment on what is happening from different perspectives, telling of their observations, feelings and perceptions.
In terms of dramaturgy, this is a clever move by the Dießen author, who with the novel “The Companion” presents his second book, which, like the novella “Das Fest der innobener Kinder” (2019), was published by Hirschkäfer Verlag. The great illustrations by Florian Scherzer do their part to underline the eerie, mystical-occult atmosphere.
The thought of a nice old time never comes up
Dressler, born in 1980, manages to make the dull helplessness of the villagers, who are enslaved by numerous prohibitions – be it by the elector or the pastor – understandable. It’s always cold, wet and uncomfortable, the thought of the good old days never comes up. Life is far too hard, crop failures are a constant threat, and the parents decide who is allowed to marry whom. Homosexuality or inbreeding is not allowed – at least officially – to exist.
Unlike the villagers, Landsberger, a follower of the religious critic Baruch de Spinoza, does not believe in inexplicable mysteries. So he sets out to investigate. But the further he progresses, the more he explores desperate passions or unbridled hatred in the village and discovers connections, the more his own past and his own “descendant” catch up with him. His gradual insanity, the vacillation between sanity and madness, until he finally feels “locked up with the dead in a remote corner of his mind” is grippingly told. But of course – after all, it’s a crime story – he clarifies everything despite all resistance. And is finally happy to escape the gloomy village again.
Stefan Dressler: Die Nachgeherin, Hirschkäfer-Verlag, 144 pages, four-color, illustrated by Florian Scherzer, price: 18.90 euros