PAPERBACKS

TO DIE IN SPRING

Ralf Rothmann (Picador, £8.99)

It’s 1945 and, with the War nearing its end, it seems that young dairy farmers Walter Urban and Friedrich (Fiete) Caroli have escaped being called up. However, they are forcefully persuaded to join the Waffen-SS, Walter being made a driver for a supply unit while Fiete is sent to the front. Appalled by what he experiences there, Fiete deserts but is soon recaptured, to be reunited with his old friend Walter under the most horrifying circumstances. A coming of age novel which doubles as a penetrating examination of the guilt felt by German people after World War II, To Die in Spring confronts its subject matter head on, handling it with intelligence and responsibility and without resorting to preaching. Combat, and its impact on ordinary people, is depicted with chilling vividness. Following this novel’s success in Germany and Italy, Rothmann is now being spoken of as the inheritor of Gunter Grass’s mantle as the conscience of post-War Germany.

BACK TALK

Danielle Lazarin (Blackfriars, £8.99)

This native New Yorker’s debut short story collection, concerning young women and their complex “unexpressed desires”, is clever and subversive, while also exhibiting a deep psychological understanding of her characters. What many of Lazarin’s narrators have in common is that they have internalised patriarchal values so completely that they don’t recognise the extent to which they allow themselves to be defined by men, and are often dismayed to realise how alienated they have become from their own needs and desires. Significantly, many of her characters are teenage girls engaging with the adult world for the first time, often after a traumatic event like the death of a parent or the splintering of their family, and finding that they way they’ve been raised is poor preparation for an independent and fulfilling life. Written with delicate precision but blunt honesty, this is a collection that resonates with the times and asserts the importance of women’s own experience and concerns.

MEN WITHOUT WOMEN

Haruki Murakami (Vintage, £8.99)

In a neat counterpoint to Lazarin’s book, Murakami’s latest is a volume of short stories about men. There are seven in all, and with the exception of “Scheherazade”, are about men who have, for one reason or another, found themselves alone. An actor hires a female chauffer, who gradually draws out of him his attempts to understand his wife’s infidelities. A student who feels unworthy of the girl he fancies encourages his friend to go out with her instead so that he can enjoy their relationship vicariously. A cosmetic surgeon who prefers short-term affairs is shocked to find that he’s fallen in love and reacts in an unexpected way. Kafka’s Gregor Samsa transforms from an insect back into a man. All these stories highlight their subjects’ vulnerability, and how women remain mysterious, indefinable creatures to them all, and they’re beautifully crafted examples of the short story form, from an author who is, remarkably, still at the height of his powers.

ALASTAIR MABBOTT