"When (supposed) love makes life hell: Terézia Mora's great novel as the start of a new trilogy. A book as harrowing as it is necessary."- Dagmar Kaindl / Buchkultur
"A surveying prose, short and to the point, without false sympathies or well-honed accusations. And therein lies the gigantic pull of this story, which excites, which drives around. You can't get away from it." - Silke Arning / SWR2
"I think this is a quite brilliant book. It is one of the best she has written." - Daniela Strigl / SRF 1 Literaturclub
"Like a crystal cut many times, which refracts light differently depending on the angle of incidence, Mora's novel offers no insights, only constantly changing, dazzling reflections like unpredictable refractions of light." - Ijoma Mangold / Die Zeit
"I think Muna Appelius is a character that many who will read this novel will not be able to forget." - Rainer Moritz / Deutschlandfunk Kultur
"Mora is a realistic author who writes with as much empathy as unsparing precision on a history of the mentality of our present." - Christa Gürtler / Der Standard
"Terézia Mora, who already won the German Book Prize in 2013, has thus quite rightly made it onto the longlist once again. Is there more in it? Absolutely!" - Marie Schoeß / Bayern2
Muna loves Magnus. Whether Magnus loves anyone – and if so, who – is hard to say. What happens when you spend your life depending on someone else?
«I know what you want,» he says. «You won’t get it.» Muna is about to graduate from high school when she meets Magnus, a French teacher and photographer. She spends the night with him. When the Berlin Wall comes down, he disappears. Seven years later, they meet again – and become a couple. Muna thinks she has found the love of her life. But as soon as they take their first trip together, cracks start showing in their relationship. Over the years the coldness, unpredictability and violence get worse. But Muna isn’t willing to give up.