Krien excels in the detail on which a life turns and she uses understated humour to great effect...Krien is unfailingly impressive in her depiction of the lives of these five very different women.
- Michael Cronin, Irish Times
<i>Love in Five Acts</i> is written - and translated - sparsely, five disparate voices cramming a world of nuance into a rare and elegant conciseness.
- Charlie Connelly, New European
This exquisite portrait of five middle-class women's lives is utterly captivating . . . A beautifully written masterclass in human frailty.
Woman and Home
Krien has produced a sensitive, intricate study of the connected stories of her characters.
Library Journal (USA)
Nothing in this life is for free. And this is why this book entertains and is food for thought, with remarkable women in their thirties and forties
Berliner Zeitung
The polyphony and the way in which every single voice is being led midway between the protagonist and the narrator constitute the special quality of this book
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Maybe that is the artistry, the literary concept of Daniela Krien, the familiar truthfulness of her characters, their touching intimacy
Stern
With psychological refinement Daniela Krien recounts the chaos of feelings and the short half-life of modern ways of living
Vogue (Germany)
She is a good listener, [...] Maybe this is why her novel <i>Love in Five Acts</i> is so entertaining
Sueddeutsche Zeitung
Krien expertly connects fortunes that only seem simple at first glance to create an altogether excellent book
Brigitte
Daniela Krien is an impressive storyteller for emergency case called love, which silences many of us. Daniela Krien gives them a strong voice
Hamburger Morgenpost
Few intelligently entertaining German novels don't ooze relevance yet are not afraid of existential seriousness. Fortunately, Krien has written one
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
It's the book of the summer
Stuttgarter Zeitung
Written in unsentimental, affecting prose, this is an intelligent study of female desire, ambition and frailty.
- Hannah Beckerman, Observer
Krien's writing (translated, excellently, by Jamie Bulloch) is sparse and precise. It hops about in time, but chronological confusion fades in teh face of the self-contained intensity of the chapters.
- Francesca Carrington, Telegraph
The writing is spare but meticulous, cutting to the heart of the matter in each of the five intimate novellas. Occasionally mordantly funny, it is all gloriously Germanic . . . All these women are children of Unification and the GDR casts a long shadow. Highly recommended.
- Patricia Nicol, Sunday Times
A multifaceted examination of female longing and loss . . . A sympathetic and clear-eyed view of modern womanhood.
- Angel Gurria-Quintana, Financial Times Summer Books of 2021
Characterised by the way its beautifully direct and lucid prose conveys complexities, and by a fierce intelligence that shows how closely connected someone's thoughts and emotions can be to daily experience of the physical world
- Kerryn Goldsworthy, Melbourne Age & Sydney Morning Herald
A chronicle of ordinary women enduring extraordinary crises . . . These are universal problems distilled down to the particular, the domestic, the small-print of human bondage and the yearning for it, that underpins our daily lives.
- Anne Cunningham, Irish Independent
Written in pleasingly exact and unfussy prose - crisply translated by Jamie Bulloch - this German bestseller interweaves the stories of five straight women, all around 40 years of age, living in Leipzig.
- Lucy Scholes, Financial Times
Fans of Sarah Dunn, Elisabeth Egan, and Isabel Gillies will relate to the multifaceted lives of Krien's characters, brilliantly rendered in her vivid voice.
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