Book Review: "The Living Realm" by Jordan Tannahill

“Her comment made me wonder, though, whether there were certain places on Earth where the membrane between the past and present, indeed even the future, had been worn thinner than elsewhere. Whether people across cultures, throughout history, had been able to perceive this thinness, both consciously and unconsciously, and if it was because of this that these sites became places of worship, or at the very least places of congregation. Places where we return over and over to be with time, to better perceive its flux, and situate ourselves within its mysteries.”

This was an absolutely gorgeous book. It was moving, powerful, at times elegiacal, and its prose was simply luminous. I’m so thankful I stumbled upon it!!

Europe was experiencing its worst drought in some time. In the midst of this oppressively hot summer, the narrator and his closest friends spend many a day at Teufelssee, a glacial lake in a forest on the edge of Berlin. The lake has always been somewhat of a tourist attraction, while the forest surrounding it has been a popular cruising spot for decades.

One night while cruising, the narrator is taken aback when he sees a man who resembles Lukas, his former lover. But it’s more than a resemblance—this man could be Lukas’ doppelgänger. Yet the strangest thing is that Lukas died more than 30 years earlier.

Even after he loses sight of the man, he is so sure that it was Lukas. But why would he show up so many years later? As he tries to make sense of this sighting and what it means, he starts encountering other former lovers whom he has lost. While his friends worry that he’s losing his mind or suffering from some type of latent survivor’s guilt, he’s determined to figure out what these appearances should symbolize to him.

I found this to be such a compelling book. This is a story about loss, memories, grief, friendship, and found family, but it’s also a fascinating exploration of the thin line that exists between our past and present. I’ll be thinking about this for a long time.