Praise for Distant Beloved: 'This book knocks you down ... Every page is a delight.' -- Barbara Ghaffari * Book Reviews * Praise for Distant Beloved: 'Maike Wetzel's sentences are like tiny barbs: eventually there are so many that any world can become unhinged.' * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung * Praise for Distant Beloved: 'In a clear and elegant language, Maike Wetzel describes a sense of insecurity spreading around ... How the everyday changes into something menacing reminds of Kafka's stories.' * MDR Kultur * 'At just 150 pages long, Elly shares the best qualities of Maike's short stories - a rumbling sense of unease or menace, an unemotional focus on emotionally-charged family dynamics, and above all Maike's careful, pared-down prose style ... Elly will leave you breathless.' -- Lyn Marven, translator 'Revolving around the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl, this slender German novel builds into a brutal, uncomfortable story, told from the alternating perspectives of family members.' -- Marta Bausells * The Guardian, 'Ten of the best new books in translation' * 'A fascinating narrative revolving around the question whose story is being told - and to whom stories actually belong.' * Bettina Hesse * 'An enigmatic study, a polyphonic monologue.' -- Cornelia Zetzsche * Bayerischer Rundfunk * 'So haunting and touching, so captivating and intense that you cannot resist it.' -- Andrea Heussinger * Norddeutscher Rundfunk * 'The perfect book for those moments when you forget the world around you.' -- Lydia Herms * Deutschlandfunk Nova * 'Wetzel's literature gets right to the core of human existence ... How she conveys primal fears and their consequences is captivating and unsettling. Her laconic, unruffled style is in contrast to the inner life of her protagonists ... This book fits only too well in a time when assumed certainties and principles are shattered.' -- Michael Au * Sudwestdeutscher Rundfunk * 'Psychologically refined, linguistically brilliant.' -- Sylvia Schwab * Hessischer Rundfunk * 'Maike Wetzel mercilessly writes about overwhelming pain and its destructive power.' -- Hans von Trotha * Deutschlandfunk Kultur * 'Wetzel's powerful narrative style reminds of Judith Hermann, who does not waste a word, but uses unusual imagery to create atmospheres that express the unconscious, the inexpressible, the outrageous.' * Volksdorfer Zeitung * 'Breathtaking. An intense, abysmal study of the trauma of abandonment and uncertainty.' -- Hansruedi Kugler * Luzerner Zeitung * 'A highly focused and accurate novel about that which is not supposed to happen.' -- Judith von Sternburg * Frankfurter Rundschau Online * 'An elaborate mosaic about the unrelenting belief in a happy ending.' * Brigitte * 'Wetzel tells the story of the loss of a child as a family drama from various perspectives, in permanent present tense.' -- Christoph Schroeder * Suddeutsche Zeitung * 'Reminiscent of Ian McEwan's A Child in Time, Elly will have wide appeal ... Maike Wetzel's fresh, original take on the popular literary theme of missing children is delivered in her clear, understated prose with its unflinching eye for detail.' * New Books in German * 'In few yet incredibly precise words, Maike Wetzel creates an oppressive tension around a family falling apart. A book that will not let you go.' * Brigitte Woman * 'Elly is a book about the dark side of longing.' -- Hubert Spiegel, speech at the Robert Gernhardt Prize 'Elly is mesmerising, moving, and deeply unsettling. I read it in a single, fevered session and it has haunted me since.' -- Emily Maguire, author of An Isolated Incident 'Maike Wetzel writes with an assurance that belies her story's unsettling menace. Elly is a tautly strung exploration of what it means when all a family desires is the continuation of their own nightmare ... because the alternative is absolute despair.' -- Melanie Joosten, author of Berlin Syndrome
