Published in August 2025 by Blessing (Penguin Verlag). 224 pages long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fabulously quirky story with a focus on life in the Nazi era, the gradual infiltration of antisemitism in Germany, and collective responsibility. This tale has a unique perspective that ensures this story is fresh, modern, funny in places and occasionally mind-bending. Szántó's narrator is an apartment building - a collection of walls, floors, ceilings, windows and pipes with a quite extraordinary voice and personality, referring to themselves as ‘we’. They also have a remarkable ability to simultaneously see all of their inhabitants: both the present-day tenants and the ones who lived there in the past. There is a very definite joy to the house’s curiosity about its inhabitants and their lives, and its all-seeing viewpoint is guaranteed to make readers wonder what the buildings around them may have witnessed. Spanning over a hundred years, modern life is juxtaposed with the trials a Jewish family had to endure in the 1930s, alongside insights into a family indoctrinated by the Nazi party, and the legacy this has left for their daughter. Szántó’s skill as a spoken-word artist and writer shines through, making this a haunting, stunning novel full of empathy.