WHEN ANKE STELLING's NOVEL Schäfchen im Trockenen (Feather Your Own Nest, 2018) was awarded the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in 2019, the jury praised the pugnacious spirit of the text, describing it as a “scharfkantiger, harscher Roman, der wehtun will und wehtun muss, der protestiert gegen den beständigen Versuch des Besänftigtwerdens, der etwas aufreißt in unserem sicher geglaubten Selbstverständnis” (sharp-edged, harsh novel that wants and needs to hurt, that protests against the incessant attempt at appeasement, that tears something open in the self-image we believe to be so secure). However, not all literary critics were quite so willing to be unsettled by Stelling's novel and to recognize something enlightening in this uncertainty. Volker Weidermann is one of them: the writer and literary critic was infuriated by this “öde Geschichte in einer öden Sprache über öde Leute” (dull story in dull language about dull people) and was repulsed by the “Selbstmitleid von der ersten Seite bis zur letzten Seite” (self-pity from the first page to the last). Weidermann's conclusion: the novel simply has no character and it fails to speak to us. In Saša Stanišić's latest novel Herkunft (Origins), by contrast, he finds everything he is missing from every page of Anke Stelling's book: optimism, poetry, and images that allow the broken story to be pieced back together

Touching images and beautiful harmony are nowhere to be found in Stelling's novel; instead, the presence of everyday items like lunch boxes, Doodle lists, bank statements, and compost bins dominates here. According to literary critic Iris Radisch in Die Zeit, the tone of the content conforms to “den Niederungen des ‘alltäglichen Wahnsinns’” (the lowlands and depressions of “everyday madness”), dispensing with any claim to “anspruchsvolle Literarizität” (sophisticated literariness). Radisch's critique of the language used in the novel is ambivalent. Interpreted in the most well-meaning sense, her words suggest that rather than simply “conforming” to the nature of the content, a novel that claims to have literary qualities should reflect on and rise above “the lowlands and depressions” of its subject matter through its language and formal aesthetics. However, rather than using neutral descriptors to express what is essentially a reasonable expectation, this critique is couched in terms that imply social distinction and exclusivity, such as “anspruchsvoll” (sophisticated) and “Niederungen” (lowlands and depressions).