You could not, ever, accuse Andrea Maria Schenkel of wordiness. Her books are masterpieces of succinct, pointed fiction, leaving a lot to the readers imagination, conclusion or simply confusion. Which is part of what I love about these books - that feeling, when finished reading, that you might just not have the whole picture. That there are things that you may have to think about, that not everything is black and white, and that the grey is often very dark, very cloudy, very textured grey.
BUNKER is a particular example of that wonderful act of leaving the reader to decide, to extrapolate, to conjecture, to muddle through. We're given the details of a kidnapping (or is it), we're given multiple viewpoints, and we're given precious little detail. In exchange the reader does have to work, there's a lot of different possible interpretations in here - unreliable narrator perhaps? In which case which one? Past catching up with the present? Mistaken identity? Pointless act? Act of revenge? You decide.
Hard work undoubtedly. Not a book for fans of the carefully laid out plot, or for a clear who / what / when / why type resolution. But I've personally been a fan of Schenkel's writing from the very first book, although to be honest, they aren't books I recommend to others easily. I find their obtuseness rewarding, the amount of work I have to put in to considering what just happened an exciting part of the overall experience... but they aren't straightforward. There are hidden depths in BUNKER that you might find you have to work for.
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