Verena Keßler Die Gespenster von Demmin
[The Ghosts of Demmin]

The title of Verena Keßler’s impressive debut novel does not define what kind of ghosts are being referred to. But it soon becomes clear that this is not a fantasy; it is a very realistic story. The ghosts are from the past and they develop an impressive coming-of-age story into a moving historical narrative.
 
Fifteen-year-old Larissa knows exactly what she wants to do in life: to be a war reporter. She trains for this hard and dangerous profession every day. She hangs by her knees from branches, holds her breath for minutes at a time and even thinks about waterboarding. She is convinced that “anyone who can endure pain does has nothing to be afraid of”. But she is suppressing completely different kinds of pain: the death of her brother, who is buried in a child’s grave at the cemetery, her missing father, who left her alone with her mother, and the imperfections of her mother, with her frequently changing lovers. The oppressive atmosphere in Demmin adds to this – a ghost town devoid of young people which has not processed atrocities that took place there.
The ghosts of its past – the collective suicide of almost a thousand people at the end of the Second World War – are made tangible through a second character, Larissa's neighbour, the 90-year-old Mrs Dohlberg. She is due to move into an old people’s home and relives some gruesome memories as she leaves her house. Her mother tried to drown herself and her three daughters while fleeing from the Russians, and two girls survived. Now the old woman courageously faces the consequences.
 
On both narrative levels, the plot is underpinned by serious topics. But The Ghosts of Demmin is a book full of hope. The two protagonists, each in their own way, face their problems defiantly and sometimes stubbornly. They keep an optimistic attitude, live courageously and have the will to take matters into their own hands. Verena Kessler manages a delicate balancing act between Larissa’s various problems, and the relaxed, even happy moments with her best friend Sarina or boyfriend Timo. She injects the story with so much wit, humour and vitality that there is a sense that things will turn out right for her in the end. And despite the lack of a happy ending, which might have been cheesy, there is a feeling of hope that many things will develop positively – for her mother, her mother’s new partner and her father.
 
This sensitively written young-adult novel also succeeds because of its very individual voice. Although the two narrative levels take different forms — Larissa is written in the first-person and the elderly neighbour is written in the 3rd person — both use a similar language. Verena Kessler has an unsentimental, concise and never maudlin voice, despite the dramatic topics this novel deal with. Larissa’s portrays her situation analytically, pointedly or ironically and always keeps a sense of humour. And at the age of 90, the elderly woman has a wise, distanced view of her life and others’.
 
Some themes draw parallels between the past and present. Both Larissa and Mrs Dohlberg almost drown at around the same age. Both of them suffer from the loss of a sister or brother, and both do things their own way. Verena Keßler tells a coming-of-age story that could take place anywhere in the world, not just present-day Germany. Youth and old age, war and peace, love and death — the major themes of literature — are addressed in a novel that does not shy away from difficult topics with an exceptionally sure hand. Demmin, with its war traumas and young people kicking their heels, exists everywhere. The Ghosts of Demmin is a plea against forgetting while pointing to the future. A multi-layered, beautiful young-adult book and a great debut.