Jordan Tannahill

In this slim but expansive novel from acclaimed and Giller Prize-shortlisted author Jordan Tannahill, a British archaeologist living in Berlin begins to see his dead lovers in a cruising forest on the city's outskirts.

While cruising one evening by Teufelssee, a small glacial lake in the Grunewald forest on the edge of Berlin, a man spots a handsome stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to his former lover. Only, Lukas died nearly thirty years ago. Yet the man cannot shake the feeling that it was really Lukas he saw.

Along with his friends, Gabor and Birgit, the man spends the long, hot summer by the lake, observing the comings and goings of their fellow nudists, as well as their beloved Elsa, a boar who lives along its fringes. He also continues to encounter Lukas, and then other lost lovers as well. As he attempts to make sense of the strange occurrences and learns more of Teufelssee, he finds himself venturing deeper into the mystery of the forest, leading him to question not just his sanity but the nature of time itself.

Written with the lyricism and erudition that have made Jordan Tannahill an internationally celebrated playwright, The Living Realm is a dreamlike novel of epic feeling, and an elegy to the ways our lives become entangled with history, the natural world, and those we love.