Love in Case of Emergency

Witty and candid, Love in Case of Emergency deftly examines the world of relationships, and the challenges, ambitions and failures of the women who take part in them. Daniela Krien (Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything) follows five interconnected German women dealing with love, motherhood and employment with varying degrees of success. Tackling divorce, infertility, trauma, narcissism and self-destruction from a variety of perspectives, the novel explores the complex dynamics of modern-day womanhood.

Krien carefully constructs five intriguing characters out of their ambitions, philosophies and hopes. Despite their different approaches to life (and love and childbirth), Paula, Judith, Brida, Malika and Jorinde are each complex, given the space to develop discernable personalities. Their relationships, wants and needs are familiar without being cliché. Each vignette feels remarkably true to life. Krien masterfully blends humor and melancholy, comedy and sorrow; these moments do not arrive in distinct packages, but in surprising combination. This balanced tone contributes to the novel's quiet brilliance.

For fans of German history, there are some references to the country's political dynamics, which enrich the plot (Malika and Jorinde's father, for example, is labeled a fascist sympathizer). But the stories are personal enough to be universal. As the characters deal with similar crises--how to balance a career and a child, how best to experience life without a partner, how to handle the dissolution of a relationship--the different ways they react reveal as much about the women themselves as the society they occupy. --Simone Woronoff, freelance writer and reviewer

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