Lieblingsbuch der unabhängigen Buchhandlungen 2023
CAROLINE WAHL
22 BAHNEN / 22 LENGHTS
A Novel, ca. 244 pages
Spring 2023
English sample available
#1 SPIEGEL Bestseller List
Independent Bookseller’s Favourite Novel 2023
More than 500,000 copies sold
"I've been whizzing through 22 Lengths and I'm absolutely thrilled. Heartwarming, fine, merciless and really beautiful at the same time."
ALINA BRONSKY
"Caroline Wahl finds the special in the everyday and the comforting in the painful. A touching and subtle book that one would like to be friends with." BENEDICT WELLS
“22 Lengths is an accomplished debut by Caroline Wahl, an exciting new voice in German fiction. A suspenseful and eminently readable story that grapples with serious themes, it offers a sharp portrayal of small-town attitudes and the struggles faced by a young woman on the cusp of adulthood.”
New Books in German
"Very well written, very gripping, very beautiful. [...] A very authentic, very dense, very close book. I enjoyed reading it insanely.“
Elke Heidenreich, SPIEGEL ONLINE
The Empowerment of Two Sisters: a Compelling, Luminous Debut
Tilda’s days follow a strict schedule: the supermarket till, maths homework, the swimming pool, cooking, looking after her 10-year-old
sister Ida — and, on bad days, her mother too. The three of them live in the saddest house on Fröhlichstraße in a small town which Tilda
loathes. After all, someone has to be there for Ida, someone has to earn money, take responsibility. They have no father in their lives anymore
and their mother is a depressive alcoholic; she tries, but the situation runs away from her more and more. Then Tilda is offered a PhD
position in Berlin, and her future flashes before her, promising freedom and possibility. But how can she leave Ida alone with their
mother? And when Viktor, Ivan’s older brother who Tilda used to be friends with, appears, her life goes off the rails. Viktor has an
unabashed grin and swims 22 lengths at the pool just like she does. Viktor is there for her when the situation at home spins out of control...
22 Lengths is a raw, tender story about shitty conditions, the devastation of family life, and finding happiness somewhere between
responsibility and freedom.
Rights sold to: Al-Arabi (Arab); Host (Czech); Cossee (Dutch); Albin Michel (French); Neri Pozza (Italian); Chanda Pustaka (Kannada); Albatros (Slovak); Vida (Slovenian); Lumen (Spanish World); Turkish (Yan Pasaj)
22 BAHNEN / 22 LENGHTS
A Novel, ca. 244 pages
Spring 2023
English sample available
#1 SPIEGEL Bestseller List
Independent Bookseller’s Favourite Novel 2023
More than 500,000 copies sold
"I've been whizzing through 22 Lengths and I'm absolutely thrilled. Heartwarming, fine, merciless and really beautiful at the same time."
ALINA BRONSKY
"Caroline Wahl finds the special in the everyday and the comforting in the painful. A touching and subtle book that one would like to be friends with." BENEDICT WELLS
“22 Lengths is an accomplished debut by Caroline Wahl, an exciting new voice in German fiction. A suspenseful and eminently readable story that grapples with serious themes, it offers a sharp portrayal of small-town attitudes and the struggles faced by a young woman on the cusp of adulthood.”
New Books in German
"Very well written, very gripping, very beautiful. [...] A very authentic, very dense, very close book. I enjoyed reading it insanely.“
Elke Heidenreich, SPIEGEL ONLINE
The Empowerment of Two Sisters: a Compelling, Luminous Debut
Tilda’s days follow a strict schedule: the supermarket till, maths homework, the swimming pool, cooking, looking after her 10-year-old
sister Ida — and, on bad days, her mother too. The three of them live in the saddest house on Fröhlichstraße in a small town which Tilda
loathes. After all, someone has to be there for Ida, someone has to earn money, take responsibility. They have no father in their lives anymore
and their mother is a depressive alcoholic; she tries, but the situation runs away from her more and more. Then Tilda is offered a PhD
position in Berlin, and her future flashes before her, promising freedom and possibility. But how can she leave Ida alone with their
mother? And when Viktor, Ivan’s older brother who Tilda used to be friends with, appears, her life goes off the rails. Viktor has an
unabashed grin and swims 22 lengths at the pool just like she does. Viktor is there for her when the situation at home spins out of control...
22 Lengths is a raw, tender story about shitty conditions, the devastation of family life, and finding happiness somewhere between
responsibility and freedom.
Rights sold to: Al-Arabi (Arab); Host (Czech); Cossee (Dutch); Albin Michel (French); Neri Pozza (Italian); Chanda Pustaka (Kannada); Albatros (Slovak); Vida (Slovenian); Lumen (Spanish World); Turkish (Yan Pasaj)
Rights inquiries
Caroline Wahl
Caroline Wahl was born in Mainz in 1995, grew up in a village in Baden-Württemberg, and studied German in Tübingen and Modern German Literature in...
Caroline Wahl was born in Mainz in 1995, grew up in a village in Baden-Württemberg, and studied German in Tübingen and Modern German Literature in Berlin. She worked for several publishing houses. In 2023, her first novel, the Spiegel bestseller 22 Bahnen, was published by DuMont, for which she was awarded the Ulla Hahn Authors' Prize and the Grimmelshausen Sponsorship Prize. Caroline Wahl lives in Rostock.