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The Girl On The Stairs by Louise Welsh (view source)
Revision as of 13:33, 9 March 2018
, 13:33, 9 March 2018no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=The Girl On The Stairs
|sort= Girl On The Stairs
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1848546486
|pages=288
|publisher=John Murray
|date=August 2012
|website=http://www.louisewelsh.com/
|summary=Psychological drama set in modern-day Berlin, where pregnant and largely alone Jane Logan is concerned about the fate of her young neighbour.
|cover=1848546505
|aznuk=1848546505
|aznus=1848546483
}}
Jane Logan is seven months pregnant when she moves to Berlin to be with her girlfriend, Petra. Petra is the smart one: older, more chic and with a high-flying job in banking. It had been Petra's idea to have a baby, and Jane had taken a long time to say yes. But now it's nearly here. She's quit her job, cut her credit cards in half and left her old life behind, not realising just how utterly dependent she is making herself.
It isn't a bad novel. It holds the attention purely by virtue of the fundamental mystery as to whether we have a pregnant woman getting delusional or worse, or a wife-murdering, child abusing, mad Doktor with a thing for prostitutes. But that's the point. It ''holds'' the attention; it doesn't ''grab'' it.
The general press were unstinting in their praise (if the extracted quotes on the web are anything to go by), but for me this is nowhere near Welsh at her best. For that check out [[Naming the Bones by Louise Welsh|Naming the Bones]]. For real Berlin darkness though you have to go back to the days of the Wall and you can't do better than Le Carré [[The Spy Who Came in From from the Cold by John Le le Carre|The Spy Who Came in From the Cold]]. {{amazontext|amazon=1848546505}}{{amazonUStext|amazon=1848546483}}
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