Hooded crows, kestrels, goshawks, the 800 families of racoons that live mostly undetected in Berlin – it is clear from the way Liptrot writes about the city’s wildlife that you can take the woman out of Orkney but you can’t take away her affinity with the natural world. A job on a production line introduces her to other expats – “a highly educated bunch of factory workers, international wannabes thinking of other things”, mostly creative types who are all waiting for the email that will change their lives.
The city is brought to life from the perspective of a tourist trying to make it her home. What follows is a chronicle of Liptrot’s year abroad, who she meets, what she learns, and loses, how she ultimately recovers. Restless and curious, she leaves Scotland for London, doesn’t find what she’s looking for, and so moves on to Berlin, a city where no one is ever quite trendy enough: “There’s always a sense of arriving in Berlin just a little too late.” Now in her mid-30s, she is once again striving to understand her place in the world. In The Outrun, the harsh, beautiful landscape of island life formed the backdrop of the author’s struggle to overcome issues with addiction as a young woman. In both books there is a strong sense of place. One way Liptrot achieves this is to locate her subject matter, her internal conflicts, in the wider world.
There's always a sense of arriving in Berlin just a little too late As with her acclaimed debut, The Outrun, a recovery memoir of sorts set on the author’s childhood home of the Orkney Islands, there is great depth of feeling in her writing, without ever being mawkish. Whether she’s describing the cycles of the moon, the flight paths of migratory birds, or the addictive qualities of social media, Liptrot is always engaging her thoughts considered, the language lucid and judicious. In The Instant, she writes: “I’m interested in equinoxes and solstices, the moments when the planets and the years balance and tip, the instants when we come in and out of shadow.” Scottish author Amy Liptrot’s new book is a case in point. A mark of a good writer is the ability to turn whatever interests them into interesting material for the reader.
0 kommentar(er)
