Zwölf Frauen und ein Mann

„Twelve Women and a Man“ is a collection of seven stories. With sharp wit and ironic precision, the author, Claudia Erdheim, relates her travel experiences of the last ten years in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and the United States. The author’s narrative style is characterized by fast pace and a great number of dialogs. She introduces the reader to Ukrainian libraries and archives and Siberian wood huts without toilets. She permits the reader to visit hidden synagogues, to get to know dishes served only on Sabbath, to find men’s underwear in the backyards of Jerusalem. She takes the reader into miserable Ukrainian apartments and to a snobbish dinner at a diamond merchant’s place in Manhattan. The interest the author takes in everyday life and things seemingly inconspicuous permit the formation of a detailed and colorful mosaic of experiences in foreign countries. These are related in the form of an inner dialog.

Whether alone, in the company of friends or unexpectedly as guide of a group that has grown in size to include thirteen people, the author is always fascinated not only by the peculiarities of the country and its inhabitants but also by interpersonal experiences. And here too there is plenty that is human and all-too-human which she discovers, always self-ironic and with a great sense for things comical….