This is kinda how it all went down…
Sharon Dodua Otoo’s new novel (not yet translated into English) is about a murder case, but it is not crime fiction; rather, it is the murderer’s confession and the victim’s last words – or better: his final monologue. I.e. it is clear from the first page who is guilty. Can we understand the protagonist’s actions? The text is written in such a way that readers can form their own opinions about the case.
In her detailed confession, in which she promises to reveal the whole truth, Amata Haller writes that she wanted to travel to the Baltic Sea to commemorate her grandfather with her mother, which they do every year. She admits to murdering her boss on the way there and explains that she didn’t really have a choice. Heinz Brockhaus, the victim, is her superior at an aid organization for Africa and drives her to the Baltic Sea because Amata is too disorganized to get there otherwise. She misses her train and is unable to rent a car. She describes him as annoying, but she goes much further than that, recounting some of her experiences as a Black German woman and certain aspects of her family history, into which Otoo skillfully weaves historical facts. In the novel Amata’s grandfather, for example, is one of the few survivors of the sinking of the Cap Arcona on May 3, 1945. The British bombed the ship at the end of World War II because they suspected German troops on board and not thousands of concentration camp prisoners.
The second part of the book is Brockhaus’s endless rambling during the car ride to the Baltic Sea, which drives Amata to the brink of rage and ultimately leads her to murder him. I also found Brockhaus really annoying – a middle-aged white man who thinks he’s doing everything right, but is actually pushy and lacks self-reflection. It reminded me of the expression “I could kill him,” which Amata apparently takes literally.
In just 139 pages, Otoo covers an enormous range of topics and addresses current debates, such as the renaming of streets with colonial or racist names, the restitution of African art, the illness ME/CFS, and men who feel threatened by feminism. Nevertheless, This is kinda how it went down… is significantly less complex than Ada’s Room, which is certainly due to the novel’s brevity. Some of the topics are heavy, but Otoo’s characters are once again quite humorous. Amata uses a rather dry and, at times, unconventional style of language, for example, when she translates English terms like “smartphone” into German and refers to it as a “Klugfon.” This is kinda how it all went down… is therefore a fun read in spite of it all. Here and there, I almost wished I could have read a little more about the topics that were touched upon and the characters mentioned in passing, such as Amata’s grandfather or other family members.