Berlin, Bea Setton
‘As a city, Berlin is depicted as a melting pot of culture and a place for reinvention, and yet, Setton swiftly converts all such feelings associated with hope and renewal into an experience that is a lot more sinister.’
Berlin is a story of reflection and re-invention. When Daphne arrives in Berlin for a fresh start in a thrilling new city, she’s ready to make some new friends, grapple with online dating and improve her German. The last thing she expects is to run into more drama than she left behind, but after something strange happens one night, life in bohemian Kreuzberg doesn’t feel like the clean break from her past that she’d hoped. As this series of events continues to make Daphne’s life a misery, she begins reaching for desperate measures to maintain a sense of control.
Much like many of her millennial counterparts, Bea Setton has captured the modern female experience with extreme wit, insight, and good humour. Daphne spends much of her time ruminating on her past, the decisions that have led her to her current state, comparing herself to her peers who seem to have a much better grasp of adulthood than her. Inherently scheming, manipulative and self-centred, Daphne is the kind of protagonist who readers will love to hate. You can’t trust a single thing that comes out of her mouth, yet you can’t help but hang on to her every word.
I also enjoyed how Setton writes about language; Daphne’s narration is littered with footnotes, which – at first – I worried might distract from the beautifully written prose, but instead, they act as a nuanced insight into the German language and Daphne’s relationship with it. As a city, Berlin is depicted as a melting pot of culture and a place for reinvention, and yet, Setton swiftly converts all such feelings associated with hope and renewal into an experience that is a lot more sinister.
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