Blauschmuck

This is a book of violence, based on a true story, told in sparse poetic lines. We follow Filiz, a Turkish girl, who grows up in a large poor peasant family. At a too young age she falls in love and marries Yunus, against her family's wishes. Yet her dreams of love and escape into a better world shatter, and she finds herself slaving away at her mother-in-law's property, while receiving the same “blue jewellery” most women in her homeland receive from their husbands.

This story is brutal, it tells of women as properties and domestic violence. So I admire how Winkler found this prose that's quiet and direct and hurts, while also allowing for Filiz' dreams and hopes to shine through. It helps to know that there's a happy ending at the end.