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A review by apurvanagpal
Dark Satellites by Clemens Meyer
4.0
3.5⭐️
Dark Satellites by Clemens Meyer (translated from German by Katy Derbyshire) is a collection of dark, unsettling and oddly intimate fragments from lives of the people at the very margins of society.
Set in contemporary Germany, it centers on themes of isolation and loneliness, how it feeds on similar emotions and seeks it out of the people they meet. Through the eyes of Meyers characters, we see how chance encounters lead to a basic turn of events, affecting their lives minutely yet deeply. It almost makes us reflect upon the unpredictability of life and the people we meet, the baggage we all carry.
The stories were short, crisp, a little strange sometimes but deeply impacting.
My favourites from the collection were ‘Late Arrival’ which tells the story of a brief friendship between two middle aged women, a late night train cleaner and a hair cutter, who bond over wine in the early hours of the day and long for human connection.
I also really liked ‘Broken Glass in Unit 95’ in which a man recounts his short lived affair with a young refugee woman fleeing from the Soviet empire, in a string of broken dialogues and I thought it was beautifully put together.
Like any other collection, it had a couple stories I struggled with but most of them were really memorable. I thought the translation was fluid and perfectly captured the characters’ psyche.
I highly recommend it and give it 3.5/5 overall.
Dark Satellites by Clemens Meyer (translated from German by Katy Derbyshire) is a collection of dark, unsettling and oddly intimate fragments from lives of the people at the very margins of society.
Set in contemporary Germany, it centers on themes of isolation and loneliness, how it feeds on similar emotions and seeks it out of the people they meet. Through the eyes of Meyers characters, we see how chance encounters lead to a basic turn of events, affecting their lives minutely yet deeply. It almost makes us reflect upon the unpredictability of life and the people we meet, the baggage we all carry.
The stories were short, crisp, a little strange sometimes but deeply impacting.
My favourites from the collection were ‘Late Arrival’ which tells the story of a brief friendship between two middle aged women, a late night train cleaner and a hair cutter, who bond over wine in the early hours of the day and long for human connection.
I also really liked ‘Broken Glass in Unit 95’ in which a man recounts his short lived affair with a young refugee woman fleeing from the Soviet empire, in a string of broken dialogues and I thought it was beautifully put together.
Like any other collection, it had a couple stories I struggled with but most of them were really memorable. I thought the translation was fluid and perfectly captured the characters’ psyche.
I highly recommend it and give it 3.5/5 overall.