[ book tip by Claudia Gremler ] Ungefähre Landschaft (Unformed Landscape, translated by Michael Hofmann in 2005) was Swiss writer Peter Stamm’s second novel. First published in 2001 it tells the fascinating story of a young woman’s alienation. Kathrine, a customs officer in northern Norway, has spent all her life north of the Arctic Circle. When she discovers that her husband, whom she married without loving and who is slowly crushing her personality, is a compulsive liar who is deceiving her on a daily basis she goes on a journey to the south, a journey of self discovery. 

As she travels through Europe, Kathrine slowly emerges from the constant detached state of indifference which had enveloped her. She experiences short-lived, ill-fated romances with men who each in their own way symbolise cosmopolitanism and access to the wide world. Once Kathrine manages to leave her unemotional state of psychological numbness – a key moment is when she first uses her son’s first name instead of coldly referring to him as 'the child' – she realises that she needs to go back north. Even though she dreads returning to the start of her journey and having to deal with her husband, ultimately she feels that she belongs up north even though she cannot imagine a future in the cold darkness of the Arctic. Without giving away too much, it soon becomes clear that the Kathrine who left is not the same person as the one who returns to her home and important choices will be made.

The main attraction of the book is Stamm’s effortlessly precise and slow paced style which allows us to follow Kathrine on her self-discovery as she frees herself from her husband and the tiny village that is suffocating her, finds maybe not happiness but a deep sense of contentment and bit by bit conquers her part of the world: Tromsø, Molde, Oslo and beyond.

[ book info ] Stamm, Peter: Ungefähre Landschaft. Roman. (original language: German) Arche, Zurich, 2001 (2001). ISBN: 3716022888.