Carter, the main character, has a way of enchanting the people around her. That is also what she does to this story’s nameless narrator who is vying for her attention from the first moment but never really seems to get close enough. That’s because only Carter herself decides how close she allows people to get and how intimate her relationships to them will be. Hence she creates a fragile network of attracting and rejecting people, of letting them approach only to draw away again.
In extremely graphic phrases, Ally Klein manages to capture even the slightest movement, the tiniest sensation, down to the smallest bodily details. Her language becomes almost tactile, positively etching itself into the reader’s body. Rarely has a debut novel cast a comparable spell on the reader.
»There are books that take your breath, that fill every single muscle with highest tension, and that take possession of the reader. Ally Kleins debut novel is definitely one of those stirring books.« (Björn Hayer, Spiegel Online)
»An extraordinary intensive and impressive novel.« (Thorsten Martinsen, Feuilletöne)
»With its consequence and language Carter is remarkable. Literature as an adventure – Ally Klein shows how it goes.« (Wolfgang Huber-Lang, APA)
Comments from this year’s Bachmann Prize’s jury debate where the author presented parts of Carter:
»From the first word this text had an impressive pull. What bowled me over from the beginning was the mix of precision and sensuality. I am thrilled.« (Stefan Gmünder)
»This text is alive, it is almost an organic composition – it is formidable.« (Michael Wiederstein)