Ingeborg Bachmann Award

Inka Parei – What Darkness Was

fiction

176pp

English sample translation (pdf)

> No. 1 on the ZEIT Bestseller List

> Nominated for the ANGELUS Central European Literature Award

An old man lies in his bed near death, when he sees a suspicious-looking stranger in the stairway. The night seems interminable as each noise stirs up memories and fears. His observations throughout the gruelingly long night hint at his own life story, centered around his post-war guilt. Discovering the identity of ths stranger in his house becomes the old man’s final mission in life.

Inka Parei, whose debut novel DIE SCHATTENBOXERIN (The Shadowboxing Woman) has been called »an urban, vivid novel... displaying an almost criminologically precise appreciation of detail« has been published in eleven countries.

Rights sold

Poland - Prószynski
Romania – Corint
Russia – Centrepolygraph
Spain (Castilian, World) - El Acantilado
Turkey - Can Yayinlari

paperback – btb

Previously published /rights reverted:

book club – Büchergilde Gutenberg

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Reviews

Ingeborg Bachmann Award, Jury Statements

»My vote goes to a text which has an utterly entrancing voice of its own and in which the tiniest detail takes on an importance. A magnificent achievement. I feel as if I've heard literature for the very first time.«
Iris Radisch, Die ZEIT

»With a cool power Inka Parei guides our view of the old man’s home like the camera of a documentary film: pictures of incredible precision and clarity.«
Elmar Krekeler, Die Literarische Welt

»Only once did I thank an author at this event for his text. Now is the time to do this again.« Josef Haslinger

»This text shows literary necessity. Something is said that is absolute truth. You can point at it and say: Literature.« Ursula März, Frankfurter Rundschau

More reviews:

»Stands out among this year’s new publications.«
Iris Radisch, Kulturzeit (3SAT television)

»A superb piece of literature, and the most stunning lesson in German history in a long time. A perfectly dramatized scenario of death approaching, a flood of images growing from the dark of the past. Inka Parei’s writing stands without comparison, turning darkness into light, adding color to the dullest of greys.«
Die Literarische Welt

»Employing an immensely sophisticated and complex language, Inka Parei accompanies the living and dying of a retired post office clerk – blossoming into a major novel of our times and society. (...) A most impressing piece of literature, a liminal reading experience.«
Die ZEIT

»The poetic powers of persuasion and imagination mark the signature style of Inka Parei. (...)
Her lucent, concise sentences radiate compelling objectivity (...), adding up to form a mystery, transforming the real and tangible into a surreal dream world that exists in our imagination only. (...) As reality passes into hallucination, Inka Parei proves herself a master of such smooth transition.«
Frankfurter Rundschau

»Artfully composed, told in an unobstrusive style, in a sophisticated setting. A great piece of literature.«
bücher

»Inka Parei masterfully moves through the twilight zone of human consciousness, between death and dream (...) The house of the old man becomes a metaphor of human existence.«
die tageszeitung

»An exceptional novel of striking complexity, maturity, and precision.«
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Such amazing clarity of perception (...), with the acuity and graphic detail of a masterly black-and-white photograph. (...) Parei’s novel radiates a unique aesthetic quality of silence.«
Süddeutsche Zeitung

»A careful analysis of human perception, of memories fading, and the denial of memory itself. (...) A novel of stunning detail, an almost photographic portrayal of reality (...) One of those rare magic moments in literature.«
Nordkurier

»A literary thriller and a philosophical essay simultaneously, leading the reader to question whether the past is ever truly in the past and whether our perception of the present can ever truly be trusted.«
GBO, New York

»Gradually, Parei tightens the noose the old man is caught up in. (...) `Was Dunkelheit war` presses towards the light– in every sense of the word.«
Financial Times

»The entirety of German history is comprised in this ‚twilight zone between death and dream.«
Neues Deutschland

»There’s no contemporary author who could ever draw level with Inka Parei as to her accuracy of perception.«
Saarbrücker Zeitung

»Inka Parei’s writing skills can only be marvelled at. (...) This novel sweeps the reader straight into the chilly realm of darkness which has hardly been depicted as vividly by any other contemporary author.«
Die Rheinpfalz

»Attentively and with great precision, Inka Parei tells of a perishing life. A quiet novel, yet of enormous dramatic potential.«
Tagblatt

»`Was Dunkelheit war` will still remain when other contemporary attempts at a literature of memory have long been scattered to the four winds of literary fashion.«
Stuttgarter Zeitung

»Unfolds great power by means of a concise language and a most intensive atmosphere.«
Radio Bremen

»Not every writer enters the spotlight as triumphantly as Inka Parei.«
Berliner Zeitung

»Her focus is on the relevance of each moment, turning even the slightest perception into a revelation.«
Salzburger Nachrichten

»Captivating, showing linguistic refinement and stylistic sophistication. An impressive psychological study«
ORF

»Parei succeeds in weaving a complex microcosm around her solitary protagonist, without resorting to sentimentality.«
Berner Zeitung

»Inka Parei shows herself in literary top form.«
Luxemburger Wort

»Very few writers of the younger generation who approach the subject of memory bear comparison with Parei in terms of her accuracy of perception. She explores the subtle details, the nuances of life, taking stock of an entire human life from the remains of one single day.«
Der Tagesspiegel

About the author

Inka Parei, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1967, lives in Berlin.
Her first novel DIE SCHATTENBOXERIN won the Hans Erich Nossack Award in 2000 and has since been translated into 10 languages. For the beginning of WAS DUNKELHEIT WAR Inka Parei was awarded both the Ingeborg Bachmann Award and the Audience Award at the Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur (Days of German-Language Literature, held annually in Klagenfurt, Austria).
Inka Parei is a tutor at the Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur in Klagenfurt 2007.

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