Original title: Ein Jahr in Berlin
Author: Romain Butti
Publisher: Kremart Edition, Luxembourg (2019)
Format & Length: Novella · 98 pages (~15.000 words)
Genre: Contemporary Literary Fiction · Queer · Urban-to-Nature
Setting: Berlin · Aotearoa New Zealand
ISBN: 978-99959-39-47-2
Rights Available: World English Rights
Notice for International Publishers: Works published in Luxembourg are eligible for Translation Subsidies & Grants from the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture and Kultur|lx (Arts Council Luxembourg). Acquiring publishers can apply for financial aid to co-fund English translations.
What it is about
Lost in the anonymity of Berlin, a young graduate follows a charismatic stranger out of the urban jungle into the raw, healing rainforests of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Synopsis
The protagonist, a recent graduate from university, moves to Berlin for a year to write the memoirs of his aunt Ida, a gallery owner in Mitte. Overwhelmed by the claustrophobic anonymity of the metropolis and his own inner turmoil, he meets the mysterious Greg. Both men quickly realise they share an urgent desire: to step away from the pressures of modern urban life.
Daydreams of escaping soon turn into a radical decision: together, the protagonist and Greg leave Europe behind and travel to Aotearoa New Zealand.
In New Zealand, the narrative shifts from the city streets to the island’s coastlines, rainforests, and waterfalls. Surrounded by Nikau palms, silver ferns, and the Southern Cross, the line between physical reality and inner vision begins to blur. As the protagonist gradually dissolves into the vastness of the natural world, Greg becomes increasingly elusive and ghostly - raising the question of whether he was ever real, or merely a projection of the protagonist’s desperate need to escape.
English Sample Excerpt
“I leave the Ford Explorer next to a wall of rainforest on a precipice, and its headlights shine over the cliff through the drizzle and into the darkness. I climb down the worn path between Nikau palms and harakeke and puriri, and end up again in front of the waterfall, and the Nor'wester roars above me, and it bleeds into me, and with each step I sink up to my ankles in sand, and the rain erases my trail.
In front of me everything. Succulent growth and lush scrubland. I breathe the cool air. Around me are pines and silver fern, wet soil sucks on my toes and sand gets between my hairs, and the toetoe are fluffy and blowing lazily, it is calm and vast and haze blue, and thundery showers flow from the arched rocks. Everything in my body hurts, and I put my head under the waterfall, and my head in his hands, and I bloom inside him, I am so scared, he leaves, and everything leaks out, into the drizzle, Greg is now next to me, and holds me and spends time with me and is present, and I hear the surf and the birds chirping, and I see the Pōhutukawa trees and the kōwhai blossoms.
Greg shows me the four red stars, the Southern Cross, the grass is firmer here, and the sky is unfolded and wonderfully wide, and the water is flowing the other way around here and I feel and I breathe it; it's just as Greg has always described. I see Greg, he is right here, he smiles, and his voice heals, haere mai, everything is ka pai, his voice echoes, and behind us the waterfall storms, and things are light, and I'm there and here with you, and you will show me much and you stretch out your hand towards me, and I think I have arrived."
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Other works by the author
Find here an overview of Romain Butti’s works.
Rights Acquiries
Ein Jahr in Berlin (One Year in Berlin) & Fir wann ech net méi kann
Original Publisher: Kremart Edition
Foreign Rights Contact: Stefanie Drews Agency
Erop / Un air perforé
Original Publisher: Luar Editions
Foreign Rights Contact: luar@luareditions.com