Invitation to the Bold of Heart

Elmiger’s debut is an elliptical dystopian tale of two sisters who refuse to accept the ravages permeating their town. Mostly narrated by Margarete Stein, with interludes by her sister Fritzi and references to the writings of Buddha, Conrad, Engels, and Goethe among others, the book is set in “the territory” bound by “the pit frames” of abandoned coalfields. “We knew little,” Margarete confesses, beyond their odd situation. Their father is the town’s police commander, their mother a “renegade woman” unknown to them. With no sense of the past and little knowledge of personal or collective history, Margarete devotes herself to recording “the tale of a town in the process of disappearing.” Fritzi occupies herself with “studies in the field,” surveying the landscape in search of clues. After Margarete learns of the existence of a river, the sisters set out to find it. Interviewing residents between excursions through the countryside, Margarete and Fritzi undertake a quest that comes to encompass their need to understand their mother. Related through a series of impressions, the novel is an occasionally inchoate coming-of-age story, a messy but touchingly poetic adventure alternating between annoying flourishes and insight into sisterly bonds, personal growth, and the need for freedom. (Dec.)