Decompression

In this riveting tale we meet two couples caught in a web of conflicting passions, Diving instructor Sven Fiedler and his girlfriend, Antje, who live and work on the Spanish island of Lanzarote. When a tourist couple—Jola, a soap opera actress, and Theo, a stalled novelist—arrive for an intensive two-week diving experience, Sven is captivated by Jola’s beauty and evident wealth.
        Theo suspects that Sven and Jola have begun an affair, but oddly, he seems to encourage them. Antje looks on, increasingly wary of these new clients. Cycling through different points of view, we are constantly kept guessing about who knows what—and who is telling the truth. A brutal game of temptation and manipulation unfolds, pointing toward a violent end—but a quiet one, underwater, beneath the waves.

Juli Zeh’s novels include Eagles and Angels, winner of numerous prizes including the German Book Prize; Gaming Instinct; In Free Fall; and The Method. She has worked at the United Nations in New York, taught at the German Institute for Literature in Leipzig, and currently lives in Brandenburg. In 2013 she was awarded the Thomas Mann Prize.