by Katja Oskamp
First published 2022
A middle-aged woman watches her writing career crumble. She makes a radical choice: she will become a chiropodist. She travels to Marzahn, the massive prefabricated housing development that once housed hundreds of thousands in East Germany. Now it sits on Berlin's outskirts, home to those the city has left behind. From her position at the foot of the treatment chair, she tends to damaged feet and listens to damaged lives. Her clients reveal their secrets as she works. A former factory supervisor speaks of lost purpose. An elderly woman describes surviving the war. A young mother confesses her fears. Each person carries the weight of Germany's fractured history in their body and their stories. The protagonist discovers that healing others' feet becomes a way of understanding their souls. Through these intimate encounters, she finds something her writing never gave her: genuine human connection.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: Berlin, Marzahn
Period: 21st-century
141 pages · Paperback · Peirene Press