Kein Sturm, nur Wetter

JUDITH KUCKART
KEIN STURM, NUR WETTER /
NO STORM, ONLY WEATHER
A Novel, ca. 200 pages,
Autumn 2019

English sample available

“A doubled stroke of luck for the attentive reader” – Hubert Winkels, Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Judith Kuckart created magic between the covers of her book, with her crystal clear, understated language whose profound observations only reveal themselves at a second or third reading. Her words sound harmless and simple, and feel featherlight in spite of the often heavy, deep thoughts they express. (…) A book that will stir up the reader’s thoughts and emotions long after they finish reading and that raises some fundamental questions.” Peter Mohr, Straubinger Tagblatt

“‘Kein Sturm, nur Wetter’ is a multi-layered text, a self-referential system with numerous internal links and cross-references. Many of her images are echoed in other parts of the novel, repeated and modified several times. (…) Judith Kuckart’s novel tells us a story not so much about life than about a life unlived. About unfulfilled desires, hopes that ran aground, people who seem to live inside a glass jar.” Franziska Wolffheim, Der Spiegel

“Her language is so incredibly tender and poetic. I highlighted at least a dozen sentences.” Joachim Scholl, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

“Judith Kuckart masterfully shows the potential of her characters. In her novels (…), decisions are often left up in the air. Life paths cross and are bent out of shape. (…) Memories are created from individual moments, in stories, images, emotions. But can you trust them? We are what we remember, and what we forget. Life progresses towards its end. ‘Kein Sturm, nur Wetter’ (‘No Storm, Only Weather’) is a great adventure of the mind.” Cornelia Geißler, Berliner Zeitung
“Judith Kuckart transforms neurobiological issues into literature without ever giving it a forced impression. Her thoughts are often dark, but her language is gleaming.” NZZ am Sonntag


WE ARE WHAT WE HAVE FORGOTTEN

Sunday evening, airport Berlin Tegel: In a coffee shop at departures, she is engaging in a conversation with a man. Robert Sturm is 36 years old, 18 years younger than she is. He is on his way to Siberia. At the end of his and her working week he will be returning. On Saturday. That’s what she is waiting for…
When she came to Berlin at the age of 18 to study medicine, she met Victor who was twice her age. He was the other, the political generation and opened the world to her. But he himself remained withdrawn. Life with Viktor was an adventure, but they didn’t share its dangers. At the age of 36 – in the meantime she had earned her PhD in neurobiology – she meets Johann at the turn of the millennium. He is the same age as she. Together they muddle through their love, not only their work-biographies are uncertain.
Saturday morning, again airport Tegel: for six days her everyday life and her memories have become intertwined and tried to explain. Why is it that men in her life are always 36 years of age. Is she still the person she remembers to have been.

A densely woven literary novel about aging, memories, forgetting, and also about story telling, something that is not possible without memory.

Rights sold to: Seagull Books (English World);