Fitness

What can happen when a person wants to get to the top at any cost, to be the best and leave everyone far behind? After the successful novel Eva, in which Verena Kessler offered a view of parenthood from the perspective of four women with different, yet connected destinies, the author now comes up with a new female protagonist. To get up from the bottom, where she has fallen from a great height, the narrator has to pretend that she has always been a fitness enthusiast. Plus, faking motherhood. She desperately needs a job and MEGA GYM lies completely outside her former world. The mirrors glisten, the perfect bodies show muscles, the bar sparkles with casual flirtation and the boss proudly proclaims his feminism. No pressure to perform, no overtime, no competition - but no goal either. Until Vick shows up at the gym.

Funny, clever and a little bit scary, this novel is a fascinating tale of obsession, self-destructive ambition and the flip side of perfect surfaces.