The Love Test
Hamilton's 1995 novel is the last in the loose German trilogy which includes
Surrogate City and
The Last Shot. Set in Berlin in the early 1990s, it tells a haunting story of East meeting West: On the East side of town is Christa Süsskind, a captive of her GDR past which took her freedom, her lover Ralf Krone and their new-born child. On the West side of the city live Mathias and Claudia Hauser, two captives of the present 'mindlessness of the Euro-fun', trapped in a marriage that no longer conforms to the fun principle. Their paths cross when Christa seeks Mathias help as a journalist to trace her lost lover and child. As the narratives of the past and present unfold, Hamilton shows the different ways in which 'the love test' is taken by each of the four figures involved, and probes if 'the intensity of human love' can still set things right or if, as Alexander Kluge's epigraph for the novel suggests, 'at a certain level of misfortune, love can no longer be generated.'
Faber & Faber 1995
Translated into: Romanian
Rights contact:
Peter Straus
Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd.
20 Powis Mews
London W11 1JN
United Kingdom
Email: peters@rcwlitagency.co.uk
Website: www.rcwlitagency.co.uk
View more books translated into:
Romanian
