Who among us has not been startled by our dreams, or basked in the glory of the dawning sun, or tried to write a novel and failed? Ruge asks his readers to surrender to the experience, in much the same way his narrator learns to surrender, to exist within life’s harmonious contractions.”—Electric Literature
“Ruge has a knowing eye for the life and rhythms of a traveler, capturing the narrator’s daily rituals with detailed, delicate care. The cumulative effect is both tranquil and transportive, making Cabo de Gata a lovely little meditation on self-discovery and escape.”—Buzzfeed Books
“[Cabo de Gata] reveals how deeply even the most standoffish among us yearn for a sense of belonging; and how that feeling of home and belonging can, given a routine to become accustomed to, emerge in the most unlikely of places.”—PopMatters
“Quietly affecting. . . . [Cabo de Gata] poses questions about life’s directions and perspectives. . . . [A] clever, stylish novel.”—Shelf Awareness
“Cabo de Gata is a refreshing excursion, its moments effortlessly building meaning throughout.”—Publishers Weekly
“With colloquial prose and sardonic wit, Ruge eruditely captures his narrator's precarious reality and creates a world that's a pleasure to observe and meander through. At times ruefully hilarious and absurd, this slight, philosophical book will humor anyone who's ever questioned his or her place in this unforgiving universe.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Cabo de Gata is the best kind of novel—witty, lyrical, meandering, and featuring a mysterious cat. It’s the kind that will make you laugh all the way through, and you won’t realize it’s unsettled you until you’ve finished and set it down. Then you’ll pick it up again.”—Katie Eelman, Papercuts, Boston, MA
10/01/2016
The study of an East German family through decades of Communist rule and beyond, Ruge's In Times of Fading Light won him an international following. Though the quality of the writing remains the same, this new novel is entirely different in focus, eschewing the big picture for an account of one man sorting out his life. The protagonist recalls a time as a young man when he realizes that he's mindlessly performing his daily tasks, can barely afford a cup of coffee, and won't ever be able to bond with the son he has with his ex-girlfriend. He instantly decides to walk out on his life, leaving Berlin for Spain and eventually the Andalusian village of Cabo de Gata. It sounds like a glorious escape, but he doesn't find exactly paradise; for one thing, he hasn't planned well. Still, there's some small redemption in his caring for a stray cat. VERDICT Our hero is not always the best company, and there are times when his complaints about the monotony of his life become ours, but his contemplative concern is real and the lesson that happiness is hard-earned a good one.
2016-08-09
In German Book Prize winner Ruge’s (In Times of Fading Light, 2013) new novel, a writer abandons his life in Berlin and embarks on a journey toward self-realization. In the wake of his mother’s death and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ruge’s unnamed narrator finds himself deeply discontent with the mind-numbing monotony of his life. He’s 40, exists generally in solitude, and can’t seem to cut ties with his ex-girlfriend Karolin, whom he dated for 10 years. After being cajoled into watching Karolin’s daughter (whose father, ostensibly, is not him) on New Year’s Eve, our narrator decides it’s time to leave Berlin and finally start that novel he’s been meaning to write. The next morning, “like a man venturing into the street for the first time after a long sickness,” he departs to Barcelona and, from there, takes an overnight bus to the titular Cabo de Gata, a village on the southeast coast of Andalusia (a word which he, heretofore, always thought fondly of as “A kind of fantastic adjective meaning wonderful or enchanting”). Suffice it to say, it’s no paradise. To his dismay, he’s dropped off in a ghost town complete with shoddy architecture, a few vacant bars, and a promenade overrun by gangs of cats and dogs. But after a few peculiar encounters on the beach—involving a deceased hermit crab and a flock of synchronized birds hunting for food—he decides to stay for more than just one night and eventually acquiesces to the simpler lifestyle of Cabo de Gata. And the fact that he’s largely ignored by the locals only makes him more emboldened by his anonymity. The tone of the novel shifts and gradually becomes darker when our narrator meets an elusive ginger tabby cat that takes to him and also eerily reminds him of his mother. With colloquial prose and sardonic wit, Ruge eruditely captures his narrator’s precarious reality and creates a world that’s a pleasure to observe and meander through. At times ruefully hilarious and absurd, this slight, philosophical book will humor anyone who’s ever questioned his or her place in this unforgiving universe.
