Review: Die Wolke

Die Wolke by Gudrun Pausewang

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I listened to this in German. I am not a native German speaker, so I probably missed some of the words, but I understood the reader pretty well.

The story is not a pleasant one. It follows the fate of a 14 year old girl after a large nuclear accident in Germany. The book was originally published in 1990, well before the Japanese earthquake and the resulting nuclear accident at Fukushima, but after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl.

It is obvious that the author is trying to engender fear of atomic reactors (and might be criticized as being a tad didactic), and, after the accident at Fukushima, this doesn't seem as unreasonable as some critics of the book might maintain. The authorities at Fukushima did not understand the full extent of the damage in the situation and they did not inform the public quickly of the dangers. But the actual physical damage takes second place to the resulting psychological damage in the audiobook and it doesn't feel like this is exaggerated. It will be interesting to compare this fictional account to biographical accounts, should they eventually come from Japan.

There ARE safer atomic energy reactors (thorium reactors), but the large majority of currently operating reactors are not of this type. Adults need to consider carefully and with long term thinking the benefits and problems of using atomic energy. The question is, should children do this? The book is targeted at children 13 to 16 years old. I think it is appropriate for the older end of this range, and would pair well with a more scientific account.

As for the literary quality of the book, I am a terrible judge of "literary" writing, especially in a language that is not native for me. My criteria tend to be more mundane - did the book pull me in? is the story convincing and worthwhile? I found it exciting and the characters appealing. The emotional impact of the book is strong and the subject matter is important.

I was a little disappointed, when I looked up the book for this review, to find that the audio version is abridged. I generally prefer to avoid abridged versions, but in this case, I think it probably worked OK. I am not sure I could have maintained strong interest in such a painful story had it gone on significantly longer. But I also think the longer version might have allowed for better development of the characters, which is always important to me.



View all my reviews