Andrea-Maria Schenkel – Bunker

When Monika is abducted from work she is kept locked up in a bunker. Her kidnapper looks a little familiar, reminding her of a past she has tried to forget. As her time in captivity continues she tries to work out the motivation behind her kidnapping.

This was actually more of a novella than a full novel, coming in at well under 200 pages. The narrative is (purposefully) quite disjointed and is split between the viewpoints of Monika who has been abducted and her captor along with a some smaller sections from the viewpoint of the emergency services. I quite liked this style, it was always clear whose perspective we were in and it was interesting to get both sides of the story.

The story was a bit confusing at times as there were so many questions such as who is the kidnapper? Is he who Monika thinks he is? Why has he kidnapped her? What is the significance of the bunker, What is the significance of their pasts? I could go on but you get the idea. Most of the answers do become clear as the story progresses although there were still a few things left vague.

I thought the translation was well done, I didn’t notice any mistakes (the book was originally written in German). The pacing was good and the story an interesting twist on a kidnap tale.