Dieses Buch hat einfach viel zu lange auf meinem SUB rumgelegen. Ich weiß auch nicht so genau, warum eigentlich. Der Schreibstil der Autorin gefällt mir sehr gut, auch wenn ich mich erst an das ein wenig sprunghafte Erzählen gewöhnen musste. Dieses Buch war auf jeden Fall ein Gewinn. ( )

Lately I have been reading a lot of novels that take place in Germany. It is a new trend that I hope to continue since I am quickly becoming fascinated by the chick-lit and women's literature being written by German authors. Almost all of the novels I have read I ended up liking but thought a little tweaking would take the novel from good to great in my eyes.

This novel focuses on Iris who has inherited her grandmother's home in the German countryside. Iris and her family seem quite stilted with each other and you quickly find out about a deceased cousin who died at the grandmother's home. There also seems to be a touch of "magic" in this novel that was very reminiscent of Sarah Addison Allen's novels when you read about the house and all of the people that came to live in it.

At first the novel starts off very slowly and jumps around a lot which started to drive me a bit crazy. I am not a big fan of flashbacks in novels unless it is done well and unfortunately I don't think Ms. Hagena did this very well. To me this was a very straightforward tale but we often jumped around discussing characters and then switching back to the present, and jumping into Iris memories here and there. To me it led to a very jumbled book though in the end I did like the novel. I do want to say that I think that Ms. Hagena writes very well but as another reviewer noted at times due to the lengthy descriptions I found myself wanting to say "come on and get on with it" while I was reading.

I would still recommend this novel and think that those that enjoy Ms. Allen's or Ms. Alice Hoffman's novels will enjoy this one.

Please note I received this novel via the Amazon Vine Program. ( )

Als Bertha stirbt, erbt Iris das Haus. Nach vielen Jahren steht Iris wieder im alten Haus der Großmutter, wo sie als Kind in den Sommerferien mit ihrer Kusine Verkleiden spielte. Sie streift durch die Zimmer und den Garten, eine aus der Zeit gefallene Welt, in der rote Johannisbeeren über Nacht weiß und als konservierte Tränen eingekocht werden, in der ein Baum gleich zweimal blüht, Dörfer verschwinden und Frauen aus ihren Fingern Funken schütteln. Doch der Garten ist inzwischen verwildert. Nachdem Bertha vom Apfelbaum gefallen war, wurde sie erst zerstreut, dann vergesslich, und schließlich erkannte sie nichts mehr wieder, nicht einmal ihre drei Töchter. Iris bleibt eine Woche allein im Haus. Sie weiß nicht, ob sie es überhaupt behalten will. Sie schwimmt in einem schwarzen See, bekommt Besuch, küsst den Bruder einer früheren Freundin und streicht eine Wand an. Während sie von Zimmer zu Zimmer läuft, tastet sie sich durch ihre eigenen Erinnerungen und ihr eigenes Vergessen: Was tat ihr Großvater wirklich, bevor er in den Krieg ging? Welche Männer liebten Berthas Töchter? Wer aß seinen Apfel mitsamt den Kernen? Schließlich gelangt Iris zu jener Nacht, in der ihre Kusine Rosmarie den schrecklichen Unfall hatte: Was machte Rosmarie auf dem Dach des Wintergartens? Und was wollte sie Iris noch sagen? Iris ahnt, dass es verschiedene Spielarten des Vergessens gibt. Und das Erinnern ist nur eine davon.

The Taste of Apple Seeds left me with a sweet and sad mixture of emotions. It's a beautifully written book that enveloped me into Iris's story. There's something about this book that just warmed my heart. It's quite melancholy but on the other hand there's this quiet comfort that this story brings. I don't know what to make of my feelings but one thing's for sure - this book made an impression on me.

Throughout the book you get to read about the different lives of Iris's family. You get to read about generations of heartbreak and love. In the present time the book is set, Iris has just lost her grandmother and is inherited a house full of the lives her mother, aunts, grandparents, and one of her best friends lived. The best friend is her cousin, Rosemarie, and she died tragically at the home. You get clues into Rosemarie's life until you are greeted with the pain and uncertainty Iris felt about her death.

"The silence reminded me of that other morning thirteen years before when there was nothing to be heard, either. Just the occasional rattling of the wake of a tragic shock. Like deafness after a gunshot. A silence like a wound. Rosemarie had bled only a little from her nose, but on her pale skin the slight, sharply defined trickle looked as if it were mocking us."

Hagena made me believe this story was real. I was really wondering if this was a sort of memoir about the author or about someone else. It felt so real and vivid and it felt too tragic not to be real. The love these women experienced were so amazing to read about. Rosemarie was the most interesting character when the book was retelling her life. Everything about her life was wrapped in mystery that I needed to know what resulted in her death although in the end it's not so cleanly resolved for you. Nevertheless, I like that everything isn't resolved although a smart part of me would have liked Iris's questions to be answered.

Other than Rosemarie's story, the grandmother who died was a main focal point in the book. She slowly lost her memories in the span of around a decade. The way it was described was pretty terrifying and so harrowing. But, the way everything was written it was like looking inward through Iris, looking at the grandmother fading through a lens. It provided a distance to the character and just continued to make me think this book was about real life events.

The Taste of Apple Seeds was a beautiful story, haunting yet hopeful. Iris was a fantastic main character and her growth through her life was always interesting. It was a really wonderful story I just wish like Iris there wasn't lingering questions about what happened with Rosemarie. ( )

Review: The Taste of Apple Seeds by Katharina Hagena.

I don’t remember who recommended this book but it just wasn’t for me. I found it very boring so that made the reading slow pace. Good thing it was only 240 pages. It’s one of those stories blah and dreary. I don’t believe there even one high spot in the story. There was a story but nothing to uplift the family saga.

The story was about family secrets but once the reader finally finds out what the major secret was you really didn’t care. The original story was done in German and translated to English so that could be the reason it lacked memento. The author weaves a rather confusing past and present rambling that represents a deceased grandfather, Hinnerk Lunschen and recent deceased grandmother, Bertha and their living three daughter’s, Harriet, Christa, and Inga and one granddaughter, Iris who is the narrator.

It begins with the grandmother dying, the small family coming together for the Wake and moving on to the reading of the Will. The only thing Bertha had was her house and some old artifacts throughout the house and she left it all to the granddaughter, Iris. So, bertha’s three daughters couldn’t understand why because Iris was never Bertha’s pet. Yet, the whole thing blew over fast with know problems and the daughter’s went on with their lives. Anyway, Iris’s wasn’t sure she wanted the inheritance and decided to live in the house for a week to make up her mind and that is how all the memories, secrets, got the story moving into the life of this family. As the story progressed there was no excitement in the past or present which made the book more uninteresting. This is about all I can say about the book unless I get into the humdrum bits of their lives. Iris was left ending the story on a low note….to the very last page….
( )