Windstill

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Gosodwyd Windstill yn Hamburg yn ystod gaeaf 2015. Mae Lora, sy'n 21 mlwydd oed, wedi gadael ei chwrs yn y brifysgol, ac yn dianc i aros gyda'i mam-gu Almaenig sydd newydd golli ei gŵr. Yn ystod yr wythnos yn dilyn yr angladd, ymddengys pob math o ymwelwyr gydag agendau amrywiol a hanesion annisgwyl.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

Fighting to free herself from a toxic relationship, 21-year-old Lora escapes to her recently widowed grandmother's home in Hamburg. When Daniel, Lora's delusional ex, and a string of estranged relatives turn up, covert agendas emerge and conflicting views on sexual ethics surface, with sudden and surprising consequences.

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

Dispatch

In-stock items will be dispatched within 3 business days, usually by Royal Mail Tracked 48. For pre-orders, we’ll dispatch within 3 business days of receiving the item from our supplier.

Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

Award-winning Welsh author, Eluned Gramich is a writer, translator and editor, originally from west Wales. She has a BA in English Literature from Oxford University, an MA in Creative Writing (Prose) from the University of East Anglia, and a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at Aberystwyth and Cardiff Universities, funded by the SWW DTP. She has lived in England, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan, and now she has settled in Wales with her family.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

Life has hit Daniel hard over Christmas. For the past six years he has spent the holidays with his girlfriend’s family in Hamburg, but all of that has come unravelled. His dad assumed the tradition was continuing and took himself off to be with his own girlfriend. Daniel was left alone in his father’s house nursing his sorrow and too bereft to seek out old friends. The hopeless agony and isolation drive him out, to catch the train to fly to Hamburg. Lora didn’t mean what she said, and really, he hadn’t done anything too bad. Just some photos of her while she was unaware, just for him, because he loved her so much. She would come round. Lora meanwhile is helping her grandmother, Elfriede, negotiate the process of certifying the will of her recently deceased grandfather, Ernst. He’d died suddenly, unexpectedly; Lora had found him dead on the bathroom floor. They’d buried his ashes three days before. Lora is not thinking of Daniel, she’s distracted by the shocking loss of her beloved grandfather. And here, in this office, she finds out that Ernst had been married before, during the war. Another shock. Elfriede, unaware of Lora’s discomfort, is enjoying a patisserie with open relish, feeling celebratory after dealing with officialdom. She’s blurring the edges between present and past, who’s alive, who’s dead, what’s important and what really isn’t. As the past bubbles up for Elfriede, it’s the present which threatens to overwhelm Lora. There’s Uncle Gerold arriving, still with the swaggering trappings of his former wealthy life, which is being decimated by a savvy ex-wife. He’s hoping his Aunt Elfriede will help him out; he’s convinced she must be loaded. He’s packed full of old resentments and current rage. When Daniel arrives, insisting that Lora invited him, and is welcomed by Elfriede, who knows nothing of the break-up, Lora is trapped. She’s staying to help her grandmother, but these men just won’t leave her and her grandmother alone. For the older generation – Elfriede and her sister-in-law Trudi, and their now deceased husbands – life was always overshadowed by their time under Nazi rule. It’s a past they are expected to be ashamed of; it’s unmentionable and has to be kept hidden. But fragments emerge as Elfriede’s grasp on the present falters and as old fears, resentments, and joys, surface. Windstill brings together a cast of characters each of whom is burdened with loss and each of whom has their own ways of coping, or not. They blunder into each other’s feelings, trampling across painful memories, hurts and regrets. It’s painful to watch, but Eluned Gramich doesn’t let us turn away. She takes us on a turbulent journey, and we are by turns appalled, moved and captivated as these characters swing through the burlesque chaos of their lives.