The Dark Meadow

Bavaria, Germany, 1947.

At the end of the war, Afra Zauner returns to her parents' cottage on the edge of Mauther Forest. Unmarried, and pregnant. As she struggles to raise her child, her father's shame, her mother's fury and the loud whispers of the neighbours begin to weigh upon her. She doesn't believe in her sin. But everyone else does.

And someone brings judgement down upon her.

Many years later, Hermann Muller is throwing a drunk out of his tavern. A traveller, who won't stop ranting about a murder left unsolved, about police who never investigated. Out of curiousity, the file is reopened. And in the cold light of hindsight, a chilling realisation creeps upon the community.

No-one ever atoned for Afra's death. But her story is waiting to be told.

Andrea Maria Schenkel returns to the form of her groundbreaking The Murder Farm, narrating through suspects, victims and investigators to lead the reader to their own awful understanding.

“'Packs a lingering punch ... Schenkel - and the wonderful Anthea Bell, in her lucid, unobtrusive translation - is setting out to do something different. The Dark Meadow , in its evocative descriptions of postwar life in a German village, in its lack of sentimentality, pathos or melodrama, is a bleakly real portrait of injustice, poverty and hopelessness. Murder most foul, and shown here in all its pointless, meaningless cruelty' Alison Flood, Observer Thriller of the Month.”

'Packs a lingering punch . . . Dark Meadow, in its evocative descriptions of postwar life in a

German village, in its lack of sentimentality, pathos or melodrama, is a bleakly real portrait of

injustice' - Observer, Thriller of the Month

'A superior slice of German noir. Examines the German conscience, as if searching for the

psyche behind the Nazi monstrosities . . . Schenkel can be considered as a deeply serious

writer. Though her books are short, the impact they achieve undoubtedly merit this status' - Independent

Andrea Maria Schenkel is the author of The Murder Farm, Ice Cold and Bunker, all of which are phenomenal bestsellers in her native Germany and have been translated all over Europe. She lives near Regensburg, Bavaria, with her family.

Bavaria, Germany, 1947. At the end of the war, Afra Zauner returns to her parents' cottage on the edge of Mauther Forest. Unmarried, and pregnant. As she struggles to raise her child, her father's shame, her mother's fury and the loud whispers of the neighbours begin to weigh upon her. She doesn't believe in her sin. But everyone else does. And someone brings judgement down upon her. Many years later, Hermann Muller is throwing a drunk out of his tavern. A traveller, who won't stop ranting about a murder left unsolved, about police who never investigated. Out of curiousity, the file is reopened. And in the cold light of hindsight, a chilling realisation creeps upon the community. No-one ever atoned for Afra's death. But her story is waiting to be told. Andrea Maria Schenkel returns to the form of her groundbreaking The Murder Farm , narrating through suspects, victims and investigators to lead the reader to their own awful understanding.

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