Overview

Part coming-of-age tale, part family saga, an extraordinary debut novel set between Berlin, Chicago, and Jerusalem “about being Jewish and German, and all the awkwardness that entails” (The Guardian). It’s the hottest of summers in Chicago, and fifteen-year-old Margarita is spending her vacation as usual, under the not-so-watchful eyes of her aging maternal grandparents. The tempestuous yet vulnerable teen would much rather be at home in Germany, exploring texciting Berlin with her best friend Anna, or with Avi, her doting Israeli father,  a cantor at their local synagogue with whom she has shared a special bond ever since her mother, Marsha, abandoned the family. Instead, she’s stuck halfway around the world in a cavernous house, homesick and tortured by the awful sound of her grandparents’ chewing.  Yet young Margarita is blindsided whenthe announcement is made that arrangements have been made behind her back for her to meet Marsha in Israel before returning to Germany. Margarita wants no part of the ill-conceived plan but  finds herself traveling to her father’s birthplace to spend two weeks with a mother she hardly knows in an attempt at overdue reconciliation. When her mother fails to show up, however, it’s clear that things are about to go awry.  Meanwhile, in Germany, Avi tries to fill the hole left by Margarita’s absence with a trip of his own, embarking on a personal journey, both hope-inducing and despairing. Expertly straddling the two narratives of daughter and father, Dana Vowinkel’s debut is a graceful exploration of imperfect family relationships and larger cultural displacement. Centered around a neurotic but loveable cast of characters, Misophonia is a heartfelt and tender story that explores modern Jewish identity and the diaspora — an illuminating portrait of Jewish life in contemporary Germany. Translated from the German by Adrian Nathan West

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9780063374553

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Reviews

""Dana Vowinckel tells of the desires and drudgery of puberty, of everyday life and the conflicts of a religious single father and a liberal, intellectual woman, whose mode of being a mother doesn't fit any of the typical clichés. Narrated with both emotion and clarity, the novel draws its tension from the consistency of the narrative perspectives, allowing different world views to coexist even in the most intimate circles."" — Jury of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize

"""Dana Vowinckel tells of the desires and drudgery of puberty, of everyday life and the conflicts of a religious single father and a liberal, intellectual woman, whose mode of being a mother doesn't fit any of the typical clich�s. Narrated with both emotion and clarity, the novel draws its tension from the consistency of the narrative perspectives, allowing different world views to coexist even in the most intimate circles."" -- Jury of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize"

""Dana Vowinckel tells of the desires and drudgery of puberty, of everyday life and the conflicts of a religious single father and a liberal, intellectual woman, whose mode of being a mother doesn't fit any of the typical clichés. Narrated with both emotion and clarity, the novel draws its tension from the consistency of the narrative perspectives, allowing different world views to coexist even in the most intimate circles."" -- Jury of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize

Author Information

Dana Vowinckel was born in Berlin in 1996 into an American-Jewish-German family. She grew up bilingually and bi-culturally between Chicago and Berlin, and studied linguistics and literature in Berlin, Toulouse, and Cambridge. Her debut novel Misophonia won, amongst others, the Mara Cassens Prize and the literature prize of the Association of Arts and Culture of the German Economy, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair Prize. She lives in Berlin.

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