homepage

journal

My bookshelf

Entry nr 1.

Date: 04/11/2025

Title: In the opposite direction

Author: Oleg Serebrian

The book follows the memories of a young German-Romanian scientist since his childhood until his death at 36 years old by suicide. By the time he turns 36, Alex, the protagonist, has already lived in Germany for 18 years, where he came to study mathematics in 1924. In his last moments, he writes these memories, later discovered by a relative, in which he details his life in Germany and how he came to the unfortunate choice to end it all.

I found the book to be very well written, I completely emerged myself in this complex univers the author created. The book is mostly about human connections, family, love, all the while reminding the readers of the horrible things Germany was doing during WW2. Although Alex himself dose not mention in his personal journals anything about his sexuality, the book makes it pretty clear he was queer, which was heavily punished during those times. This fact is partly linked to the cause of his death and decline in mental health, as he was accused by his best fried of having an inappropriate relationship with his friend's oldest son, Wolf. That wasn't true, however Alex seemed to have an obsessive fixation on Wolf, to the point of being really weird. He says the child fells like a son to him, but I can't just ignore how much he wated the love and attention of Wolf.

This is why the book feels a bit iffy to me. I love the way it's written, I find the characters well buit and complex, especially Alex, but his obsession with Wolf was a bit much. I highly recommend the other two books written by the same author, which together with this one are part of a trilogy. They are written in Romanian though lol.

All in all, the book was good. I think I might even read it again sometime.

🖒/🖒