On a beautiful spring day, a small village in Western Germany wakes up to an omen: Selma dreamt of an okapi. Do you need to google ‘okapi’ like I did? It’s a mammal native to the Republic of the Congo, striped like a zebra but closely related to a giraffe. The thing is though, the three times Selma dreamt of an okapi previously, someone died soon after. If her dreams really do prophesise, someone is about to die … But who?
As the residents of the village begin acting strangely (despite protestations that they are not superstitious), Selma’s granddaughter Luisa looks on as the imminent threat brings long carried secrets to the surface. And when death comes, it comes in a way none of them could have predicted…
A story about the absurdity of life and death, a bittersweet portrait of village life and the wider world that beckons beyond, What You Can See from Here is a novel that explores the way loss and love shape not just a person, but a community.
Translated from German by Tess Lewis, What You Can See From Here by award-winning novelist Mariana Leky is an international bestseller, which sold over 600,000 copies in Germany when first published in 2017. Since then, it has been published in twenty-one languages and was named the German Bookseller’s Favourite Book of the Year. This fable-like story is brimming with wry wit, sadness, humanity and musings on life and death, as the quirky cast of characters navigate relationships and confront their own immortality.
When reading this, I was immediately transported to the quaint West German village in 1983. The story is narrated by Luisa, beginning when she is only ten, and Leky manages to capture both her childlike innocence and her growth into adulthood as we meet her again twelve years later. A chance meeting with Frederik, who lives in a Buddhist monastery in Japan, takes Luisa on a journey through Buddhist philosophy and makes for one captivating romance. One thing remains as this story progresses: the unusual characters each have their secrets, yet they always look out for each other and their town.
Touching on universal themes, What You Can See From Here is amusing, thought-provoking and utterly charming. It’s a real gem of a translated novel.
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