Across the Ice

Across the Ice is the first book in Peter Kurzeck’s chronicle The Old Century, in which everyday occurrences, thoughts, memories and minute observations combine to form a tender, bluesy account of a particular life.1984 gets off to an inauspicious start for the narrator, Peter: he and his girlfriend, Sibylle, have split up after nine years, he’s lost his job and the only place he can find to live is a ‘junk room’ in someone else’s flat. The dismal Frankfurt winter doesn’t help; it’s always either raining or snowing. Peter takes refuge in his writing, or roams the city looking for work. But every street holds memories of happier times with Sibylle or family days out with their daughter Carina. Now Peter can see four-year-old Carina only occasionally; the treasured hours with her are almost all that remain to him of his old life.