A Normal Family

Following on from her novel Schnell, dein Leben, in which she tells a woman’s life story, Sylvie Schenk’s new novel now tells a family’s life story. In poetic, lucid and incisive language, it keeps leading the reader back into the past. A highly intense, tightly-woven family novel.

There are four Cardin siblings. But on the day of Aunt Tamara and Uncle Simon’s funeral, not only are the fine dividing lines separating these four exposed, but also the gulfs that divide the entire family. When the linchpins figures of the family pass away, they leave behind quarrels, especially over their will – and the fighting starts on the way to the chapel. The injustice perceived by various family members is abnormally large — making this French family quite normal. Sylvie Schenk’s novel airs the secrets of a whole family in this short novel, bringing to light a difficult legacy.