The Shadow-Boxing Woman

Inka Parei

Seagull Books,

184 pages, R425

A decaying apartment building in post-Wall Berlin is home to Hell, a young woman with a passion for the martial arts. When Hell's neighbour disappears, she sets out across the city in search of her. In the course of her quest, she falls in love with a bank robber and confronts her own dark memories. What is on the surface a crime novel is actually a haunting dual portrait of a city and a woman caught up in times of change.