Overview

• The jury hailed the novel as “an event” and “a fascinating trip into the heart of darkness,” citing a style that feels both distant and gripping.
• The narrative tracks a theater group’s research journey into the Panamanian jungle, drawing on the unresolved 2014 disappearance of two Dutch backpackers.
• Critics emphasize the book’s demanding indirect-speech technique and its scrutiny of violence, dominance and the uncanny.
• Booksellers report a post-award surge in demand, with the Hanser title reportedly sold out in places and facing weeks-long delivery times.
• Elmiger, a Wetzikon-born writer who studied in Biel and at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig and now lives in New York, has said she nearly abandoned the manuscript before finishing it.