Stolpertage

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Language: 
Title in English: 
Days of stumbling
Author: 
Josefine Sonneson
Place of publication: 
Hamburg
Country: 
Publisher: 
Carlsen
Year of publication: 
2022
Pages: 
p. 176
Size: 
14 x 21,7
ISBN: 
978-3-551-58462-5
Category: 

These are times of upheaval and new beginnings: Jette's best friend has long since moved away and contact with her has fallen asleep. Jette's parents have separated and her mother has met a new partner with whom she now wants to move in together. The move is imminent and with it the final loss of Jette's parental home. But that's not all: Jette's sister, her closest confidante and a firm point of orientation in her life, will go her own way after graduating from high school. And Jette's demented grandfather's life is coming to an end. 

"When something breaks off, something new starts again. That's the way it is. But sometimes it's not like that." (p. 7) Between these two poles, which are often difficult to distinguish at first glance, this one special springtime of the first-person narrator Jette takes place, whose everyday life oscillates between memories of a supposedly carefree past and an uncertain future. Nothing is certain, everything is possible in these days of stumbling, which act as a metaphor for the feelings of the young protagonist. Adolescence appears here, very convincingly condensed in terms of both content and language, as a kaleidoscope of mosaic pieces whose composition and meaning are left entirely to the reader's perception.

This title was nominated for the 2023 German Children՚s Literature Award.