Love in Five Acts

Love in Five Acts is written - and translated - sparsely, five disparate voices cramming a world of nuance into a rare and elegant conciseness. - New European

Written in unsentimental, affecting prose, this is an intelligent study of female desire, ambition and frailty. - Observer

This exquisite portrait of five middle-class women's lives is utterly captivating . . . A beautifully written masterclass in human frailty. - Woman and Home

Krien excels in the detail on which a life turns and she uses understated humour to great effect...Krien is unfailingly impressive in her depiction of the lives of these five very different women. - Irish Times

A multifaceted examination of female longing and loss . . . A sympathetic and clear-eyed view of modern womanhood. - Financial Times Summer Books of 2021

Krien's writing (translated, excellently, by Jamie Bulloch) is sparse and precise. It hops about in time, but chronological confusion fades in teh face of the self-contained intensity of the chapters. - Telegraph

The writing is spare but meticulous, cutting to the heart of the matter in each of the five intimate novellas. Occasionally mordantly funny, it is all gloriously Germanic . . . All these women are children of Unification and the GDR casts a long shadow. Highly recommended. - Sunday Times

Fans of Sarah Dunn, Elisabeth Egan, and Isabel Gillies will relate to the multifaceted lives of Krien's characters, brilliantly rendered in her vivid voice. - Booklist