Larissa Boehning was born in Berlin in 1971, lives in Berlin and works as a graphic designer, lecturer and freelance writer. Her debut collection, Schwalbensommer, published in2003, or Swallow Summer in English, published in 2016, received critical acclaim, firmly establishing her as one to watch. Larissa's story from this collection, ”Silent Fish Sweetheart”, won the 2002 Prenzlauer Berg Literature Prize. Critics were amazed by the way her virtuoso literary abilities allowed her to make the small disasters that occur in everyday life appear continually interesting and relevant.

Her first novel Lichte Stoffe, or Light Materials, (Eichborn, 2007) was longlisted for the German Book Prize and received the city of Pinneberg’s Culture Prize and the Mara Cassens Prize for best debut novel in 2007. Her novels since include Das Glück der Zikaden, The Song of the Cicadas (Galiani, 2011), and most recently Nichts davon stimmt, aber alles ist wehr, None of it’s Right, but it’s All True (Galiani, 2014).

In the novel of The Song of the Cicadas, the main characters, Nadja and Anton are forced to leave their Russian home in the late 1930s due to hostility towards German-Russian families such as theirs. Nadja hides her Russian identity during the war, but after her death their daughter Senta finds a picture of Stalin hidden in the piano. Born in Germany, Senta, despite the large family she creates with Michael, cannot forget Gregor, the father of her first child, who left her for socialist East Germany. Katarina, daughter of Senta and Gregor, finds out about her biological father only after Michael’s death. She sets out in search of Gregor, but underway becomes waylaid by a con man who is after her inheritance. Larissa Boehning’s novel is a tale of escape and exile, ideological hopes and failed reconciliations.

“In Belorussky Station a sea of people surged, hemmed in by the walls. Once inside it was hard to keep your feet on the ground. All she could see was people’s backs, clad in grey-brown coats, fur collars sitting on top, hat brims, hair scraped back under headscarves. The smell of damp wool, oversweet violet perfume, and burnt coal. And in the midst of it all, the staccato voices and hurried cries of departure. Then everything was drowned out as the air started to shudder and a train pulled in. The screech just before the locomotive came to a halt tore the hall in two. Nadja kept her eyes on her children. They were pushing through the crowd ahead of her, following their father who was the prow parting the water for the three of them.”

In the part of this novel, originally written in German, published in Lyn Marven’s English translation, the short sentences and vivid descriptions express a scene of crowd, and visually show the view of station to readers. In the next part, it is a description about Nadja’s psychology. She was struggling because she cannot make a decision whether to leave or stay.

“She stood still, closed her eyes and did something she hadn’t done for years, decades, maybe not since she was a child. She sent a wish up to the high roof of the station, this cathedral of departure. She could practically feel her tiny prayer get lost among everyone else’s murmured hopes. No God here, nor anyone else. She stood still. Shoulders barged her, sharp limbs jostled her, forwards and back. She turned round as far as she could, and she could see the high light of the open exit, which was also an entrance, the way she had come in. She could go back out of it at any time. Back to her house, the flat, the theatre, prise the boards from the door, carry on as before.”

These words exactly describe Nadja’s feelings when she and her husband Anton with their kids were ready to take the train headed for Germany. Larissa Boehning uses the psychological description to show us how Nadja felt. The character’s inner life is repository and visible – as if we are watching them closely.

Larissa Boehning’s works, with a detailed description of the characterization and psychology and language conveying a sense of comedy and humour as well as thrilling plot, and often unpredictable endings, help the readers realise the life wisdom in the novel during reading. As a short novel, The Song of the Cicadas is impressive. Yet, like so many of the characters, I’m left with the impression of a vast gulf between the words in front of me and what was really meant by them.