
For a perfect day at the lake, pack these six new debut novels – all written, published or staged in Berlin.
Built on Sand by Paul Scraton

Already known in the literary community as the editor of Elsewhere: A Journal of Place and for his travel writings, this UK native brings his deep knowledge of the city (he’s also a tour guide) to his debut fiction tome. Built on Sand is burdened by the weight of Berlin’s past; it is a shifting, swirling entanglement of collective heritage and personal history, which is sure to make you feel more than a little melancholic this summer. Scraton’s first-person narrator is an unnamed tour guide who is transfixed on traversing Berlin’s infinite number of memory lanes and who explores the city through an eclectic line-up of close friends and strangers. From the persecution of witches in rural Brandenburg to the horrors of National Socialism, the scars of division and anti-gentrification protests, Scraton conducts an impressive sweep of Berlin’s history, while sustaining intimacy through domestic dynamics. The chapters are divided into a series of vignettes, and we begin with an obsessive map-maker who attempts to make sense of this unpredictable place by plotting her personal geographies across it – a coping mechanism our narrator employs throughout. The transience of our “swamp city” is a constant thread; peppered with clichés – “My problem was that I seemed to be more interested in ghosts than in the living” – this pattern of remembrance can prompt a desire to shake the protagonist out of his nostalgic navel-gazing. Nevertheless, Built on Sand is an evocative exploration of Berlin, both past and present, real and imagined, which will undoubtedly pull on your heartstrings. Influx Press, UK, April 2019, paperback €12.50
Disposable Man by Michael Levitin

Prolapses, cuckoldry and the sticky question of modern masculinity. Michael Levitin’s debut novel is another journey down Berlin’s tragic 20th-century timeline, but one which is charged with caustic bawdiness. Now California- based, Levitin is a literal ‘ex-Berliner’ whose extensive reportage has taken him from Bolivia to Berlin, where the story was born. Not unlike Levitin himself, the novel follows American journalist Max Krumm, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, as he returns to Berlin to make sense of his family’s troubled past at the scene of the crime. Preventing him from doing so is the “disposability” of his postmillennial masculinity, brought about by an idle life spent smoking “bifters” with his bourgeois-bohemian friends at their Stammtische, and the “genetic disorder” of cuckoldry which runs through his family. Max’s stifled present is juxtaposed with interwoven stories of his ancestors, many of which are based on true stories from Levitin’s own family. Soviet work camps, flights from the Nazis, massacres at the Ninth Fort – Levitin’s most powerful writing can be found in these horrific, elegiac historical episodes, as well as his hilarious chapter-long manifestos on topics such as the Prenzlauer Berg man and the cultural weight of being a Jew in Berlin. Some of Max’s philosophising on feminism – and the ending itself – leave behind a volley of question marks, but Levitin certainly takes us for a thrilling ride. Spuyten Duyvil Publishing, NYC, January 2019, paperback €15
Oval by Elvia Wilk

While Berlin’s history provides copious opportunities to look back, American-born Elvia Wilk looks forward to a Berlin of the near future. Living between Berlin and New York, Wilk writes at the intersection of art, architecture, and technology. Her skills as an interdisciplinary wordsmith are present in her debut novel Oval, which falls into the category of ‘New Weird’ – a genre of speculative fiction which is neither science fiction nor fantasy, but which explores unknown entities at the fringes of human consciousness. Through her excellent world-building, we are plunged into a warped version of our city, where hipsters are inventing apps to trade social capital, where the seasons change on a daily basis, and where the housing crisis has been green-washed by corporations like Finster, who buy up properties under the pretence of making them eco-friendlier. We attune to the perspective of Anja, a sympathetic-yet-flawed twentysomething scientist who lives in a malfunctioning eco-settlement on an artificial mountain – what was once Tempelhof – with her boyfriend Louis, an “artist consultant”. After losing his mother, Louis becomes fixated on a “humanitarian” mission to rewire the culture class into being more generous; he invents “Oval”, a pill which turns generosity into a “moral high”, and introduces it into Berlin’s club scene. For Anja, Louis’ passion project leads not only to romantic estrangement but also to an increasing alienation from the superficial world around her. Wilk puts society into a Petri dish and watches it squirm; her piercingly astute critique of social choreographies, gender roles, and the smoke and mirrors of corporate lingo feels unsettlingly close. This seminal work is at once tragic, tender and ominous, and will surely make its mark on Berlin’s literary timeline. Soft Skull Press, NYC, June 2019, paperback €16.50
Micro Science Fiction by O. Westin

The latest book from Berlin’s sharp indie publishing house mikrotext not only pushes the boundaries of the terrestrial, but of science fiction itself. Since 2013, elusive UK IT specialist O. Westin has gained over 74,000 Twitter followers by writing ‘microstories’ set in an extraterrestrial future, capturing snapshots of interstellar life in under 280 characters at a time. What began as an experimental project in the Twittersphere is now being ingrained on paper by mikrotext, who have carefully selected 370 of Westin’s tweets for print, sharing his pithy punches of humour and existential thought with reading audiences. While the majority of mikrotext’s output is digital and in German, we’re grateful for this English print exception. With razor-sharp wit, riddle-like playfulness and moments of poignancy, Westin tackles the big issues facing the future of civilisation: transgalactic miscommunication between aliens and humans, the personhood of robots and their right to vote, romantic impracticalities of parallel dimensions, and AI gay marriage – it seems no meteor is left unturned. Each microstory is Tardis-like in its depth and philosophical scope; their layers of interpretation radiate outwards and their paradoxes trap you in entertaining mental loops. These bitesize universes aren’t fit for digestion all at once, so space them out on an U-Bahn ride and savour each one. mikrotext, Berlin, June 2019 [available in English and German], paperback €16.99
Permission by Saskia Vogel

Berlin-based writer Saskia Vogel’s Permission is an irresistible, intensely erotic and heart-breaking addition to the thus-far contrived canon of BDSM literature, which draws us to the neon lights and Pacific nights of LA where Vogel grew up. Despite generous helpings of spanking, foot fetishes and leashes, you can forget Fifty Shades; Vogel offers a beautiful, profoundly feminist exploration of pleasure and pain, domination and submission, and the psychological spaces in between. Set on the outskirts of Hollywood, the narrative opens into the cavern of grief experienced by Echo, an aspiring actress floundering in the wake of her father’s sudden death. On Echo’s route to healing, she falls for the dominatrix-nextdoor Orly, who lives with her submissive – an older man named Piggy. Through focal shifts between Echo and Piggy, Vogel navigates the oceanic depths of sadomasochistic desire in stimulating, richly imagistic prose that glitters with poeticism. Having been translated into four different languages and set for film adaptation already, Permission is a steamy summer essential and Vogel herself is one to watch. A literary translator, her English version of Swedish author Helena Granström’s What Once Was has also been featured in this season’s edition of art journal Sand. Dialogue Books, London, April 2019, paperback €18.50
Our Lady of Everything by Susan Finlay

Our Lady of Everything, the debut novel from Berlin-based artist, writer and UK-native Susan Finlay, weaves a vibrant, enchanting and somewhat unkempt patchwork of British society at the turn of the millennium. Set in the Midlands city of Nottingham around the 2003 Iraq War, Finlay charts the conflict’s domestic impact on national and personal identity, and the thorny intersection of faith, class and the rise of the internet. Its chapters flicker between the distinctive inner worlds of six overlapping characters: Margaret, a xenophobic yet tender Irish Catholic struggling in the absence of her grandson Eoin, whose military service in Iraq has disturbing consequences; Eoin’s bereft and quietly compelling fiancé Katarzyna, and her father Stanisław, a Polish Cold War veteran whose lingering status as outsider forces him to perform the role of ‘the joker’; Meghana, a bright student navigating her Indian heritage and ‘the banality’ of her English present, and her hopeless sort-of-boyfriend Dave – who remedies his post-PhD career of working in a Games Workshop with bizarre technological rituals. At times, Finlay’s prose tumbles awkwardly, and the collision of narrative arcs feels jumbled. However, this lack of completion is arguably the novel’s charm, as it augments the authenticity of the diverse and difficult humans in question. Like life itself, Finlay’s patchwork is frayed – she leaves questions unanswered and refuses to contain the various threads in a neat narrative structure. Wry, peculiar and bittersweet, Our Lady of Everything points to the myriad rituals and belief systems we all depend upon to make sense of our messy realities. Serpent’s Tail, London, March 2019, paperback €13.43