Streulicht

Sometimes it's a thousand small stones that weigh you down, so it's hard to pinpoint the one that caused the fall. Our protagonist grows up part of the poor working class in an industrial neighborhood in Germany. She's half turkish, her name, her face scream foreigner. Her home is filled with fear of her father's alcoholic escapades, and a lethargy that has grown from disappointment. There's nobody who fosters, encourages or even recognizes her intelligence, neither at home nor at school. She slips lower and lower, as she absorbs the low expectations that are associated with immigrant children.

A portrait of a schooling system that fails students that are different, students that are quiet. The failure of parents to teach their kids to hope. A first-person narrative that makes you feel all the fears, insecurities and inabilities to escape the path that others set out in front of her. Sometimes you're so deep in her head that you want to scream. That's a compliment to the writing.

Thankfully our protagonist is resilient and a fighter, she manages to dig herself out. If that wasn't the case, this would have been a very depressing novel.

3.5