It seems to be a central concern of the city, to make beauty, but with a really original take on things. Yesterday, I went to the monument to the Berlin Wall, and I thought it was so incredibly moving and powerful and restrained. It’s a city that respects creativity, which is not the case in many places.

Why do you think Berlin feels vital?Įverything I’d heard about Berlin was how exciting it is, and how great it is for art and artists. In our Author Spotlight, you said that you wished we had asked you to stay in Berlin for another year, and that you associate the word “vitality” with Berlin. Distinguishing themselves from the group are two fierce, introspective protagonists, Yolanda and Verla, who scour the land for game and mushrooms and reject the path of 'trailing, limping obedience.' Despite its overt message, the novel seldom feels programmatic because of Wood's gorgeous, elliptical style.Fresh off her 2016 Stella Prize for her novel, The Natural Way of Things, Australian author Charlotte Wood talked to us about Berlin, feminism, and the immersive power of fiction writing. The women form tenuous bonds over their extended detention, but they have also internalized the culture's sexist attitudes%E2%80%94the 'dull fear and hatred' of the female body%E2%80%94and thus their sisterhood is occasionally riven by suspicion and scorn. One of their captors checks his online dating profile another does morning yoga. Their horrid, punishing captivity is also marked by an eerie normality. As glancing references to their former lives indicate, each of the 'bald and frightened girls' was at the center of a public scandal involving powerful men: sports stars, politicians, television hosts, religious leaders. 'You need to know what you are,' one of the guards tells them. They are sheared and leashed and marched and beaten. A group of drugged women wake up in a remote, dilapidated compound whose wild grounds are surrounded by an electrified fence. The unsettling opening launches readers into a nightmare. The latest from Australian novelist Wood (Animal People) is allegory at its best, a phantasmagoric portrait of modern culture's sexual politics textured by psychological realism and sparing lyricism.

The natural way of things book review