review
An enjoyable yet sobering novel about motherhood, trauma and loneliness as we age, The Hermit Crab takes an unusual approach to themes that have long been popular in fiction. Prize-winning author Katja Lange-Müller employs deadpan humour to explore serious issues, while also offering a no-holds-barred look at characters who may not always display great fortitude or compassion.
Firmly anchored in East Germany, The Hermit Crab follows the lives of three main characters: Ida, Elvira and Manuela. Ida, an ageing model with a string of failed relationships behind her, befriends Elvira, who lives in a village with her autistic grandson. Invited to live with the pair, Ida moves in but is troubled by Elvira’s lack of kindness and empathy towards Ole, her grandson.
Tragically, Elvira suffers a fatal fall downstairs, and Ida has to contact Manuela, Elvira’s errant daughter. Unable to relate to her son and having herself been rejected by her own mother as a child, Manuela is unpleasant and treats Ida like a servant. Distressed at having to attend his grandmother’s funeral, Ole runs away and is never found, despite a police search. Manuela stays on in the house with Ida as a companion, on the pretext that Ole might return home.
Sparse in its descriptions of characters and events, and with dramatic breaks in its narrative, The Hermit Crab is more a series of running commentaries that give the reader insights into the protagonists’ thoughts and feelings. Through this, we learn about their past relationships; key to all three is a lack of maternal compassion, which is replayed in their inability to care for Ole. Nonetheless, the women are also bound by an undercurrent of loneliness, a theme Lange-Müller addresses from an oblique yet effective angle.
Unafraid to examine what it might look like not to cope in the face of adversity, Lange-Müller deploys considerable skill in this thought-provoking novel about society and family.
All recommendations from Autumn 2024