Lite besviken men det kanske gror efter ett tag. ( )

This was hailed as an important landmark in German literature when it was originally published in 2017. Now in an English translation, we can get to see what the fuss was about.

A young man makes a promise to an acquaintance: over the course of seven nights (spread out over just over 12 months) he will spend each one enjoying one of the seven cardinal sins, and then write 7 pages about his experience, to be given to his acquaintance. Imagine Goethe's Faust by way of Wilde's Dorian Gray, with a narrative voice that feels like it has come out of Bret Easton Ellis.

With its harking to the past, to the great era of German Romanticism, Strauss' novel has been the cause of much debate about the current state of Germany under Angela Merkel, a nation with a stable centrist coalition government but with unease at the political extremes. Certainly there is a millenial angst prevalent in the novel: our central character laments modern technology, failed relationships, a moral vacuum, an artistic malaise.

The seven evenings are actually quite tame. There are no wild or extreme turn of events; indeed, whilst he seems to partake our narrator is more an observer, a commentator. It is an interesting, and short, read, but it felt more of an intellectual exercise, a literary self-reflection from a self-indulgent egotist. On the cusp of turning 30 and having to 'grow up', our narrator now faces his future: 'I have seen what it means to mature. Have passed through many shapes and asked children's questions. I searched for meaning and expression, I drew shapes in the sand.'

It will make a great arthouse movie. Perhaps it will come to define our times. But it all just lacked heart. Instead of asking questions, perhaps we should actually *do* something? An interesting book, certainly deserving of a wider audience. 3.5 stars. ( )