"unaffected and clear [...]: The strength of her text lies in its ambivalence." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Tobias Rüther
"A really, really great book." - WDR 4 , Elke Heidenreich
"of a remarkable literary power. [...] Lena Schätte speaks to us all." - WDR Westart Lesen, Maximilian Burk
"an utterly astonishing writer [...] whose language is so direct, dense and tender that it is very rare" - Süddeutsche Zeitung
"real literature, bursting with life [...]. The story of Motte is so compelling, so haunting, so true that it draws you in" -- Maike Förster ― Altenaer Kreisblatt
"a village novel, a family novel, a novel about addiction. [...] full of empathy and love, showing us that not every life is golden.". -- Elke Heidenreich ― WDR 4
"As alcoholised and hopeless as the characters are as they stagger through the area, this great text is written in a sober style and with outstanding observation." -- Carsten Schrader ― Kulturnews
"There is a lot going on beneath the casual, laconic language. Some sentences hit you out of nowhere." -- Leonie Pürmayr ― Der Standard
"a moving exploration of drinking, self-acceptance, caring and saying goodbye." -- Katrin Börsch ― Missy Magazine
"Schätte writes concisely and objectively – and so densely that every sentence hits home [...], everything is always there at once: anger and sadness, tenderness and love." -- Annika Kern ― Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
"a sober account of days spent drunk, [...] an unsentimental piece about the hardships of life, at the same time a vivid display of female resilience." -- Jan Drees ― Deutschlandfunk – Büchermarkt
"a nuanced and moving examination of alcoholism. Lena Schätte skilfully navigates around sentimentality and pathos." -- Moritz Holler ― WDR Westart
"The force of the text, unfolding gently, hits directly." - From the jury's statement on the awarding of the W.G. Sebald Prize
"The invention of biography out of self-defense. There are people for whom this requires no explanation. These individuals will find solace in this novel. Moreover, lovers of outstanding literature, regardless of their need for consolation, will discover a concentrated, poetic, and condensed text without a single superfluous word. The book emerged from a writer in just three months in the café of a hardware store, yet needed a lifetime of preparation—not just an exceptionally good book, but a book that had to be written." - Süddeutsche Zeitung
«Moth» is what the father calls the narrator. The father is a worker, gambler, and a drinker. In fact, Moth even has two fathers: one who can run fast, knows all the hiding places when playing, and comes up with an answer to any question. And the other, who is transferred from the factory to the office so he doesn’t drunkenly saw off his hand. And about the alcohol, the mother says, it was actually the same with all the men in the family.
Moth herself has long been drinking more than is good for her. Even as a child, she played waitress at the local fair festival and drank the leftovers until she felt warm. Now, as a young woman, she sometimes sleeps in the hallway because she can no longer fit the key into the lock. Her boyfriend supports her, but he usually can’t stand properly himself. Only her brother, who has become an educator, checks on her every day. When her father is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Moth looks for a way to say goodbye – to her father and to alcohol.
Father’s Hands by Lena Schätte is a moving novel about growing up in a family living in so-called modest circumstances, which, when it comes down to it, sticks together. A tough, tender novel about the love for a difficult father and the path to life.