Not my cup of tea at all. If it hadn't been for the 'round robin book club', I'd have given up on the book before the end of chapter three.

Muller writes with evocative imagery and original metaphors. She blurs the line between poetry and magical realism (moths flying out of a man's shirt). The language and the scenes are stunning and the vignette, jumpy-style of the narrative structure help to paint a larger picture of the harrowing life she is trying to portray, but the lack of story left me feeling disoriented (and not in the way the author intended). It was only the last eighth or so of the book where the narrative pulled together and there was lucidity in it. The rest felt like scenes that were written beautifully but not put together thoughtfully. Writing poetically for the sake of it. But the imagery and description of village life is indeed beautiful and I take great inspiration from it. I'm not sure if this is representative of Muller's oeuvre, or if I should try one of her other works. Didn't feel like I got much from this except for the excellently conveyed atmosphere and interesting comparative and descriptive language.

Interesting story of life during the totalitarian reign of Nicolae Ceaușescu. I enjoyed the insight but found the novel a little descriptive for my liking and the characters a little flat

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.


The Fox Was Ever The Hunter is German literature covering a laborious topic of life under totalitarianism. I'm instantly interested in historical novels so I requested this book and ended up receiving it. I also have many German ancestors, so that being said, I was easily attracted towards this book. Not to mention, it's beautiful cover and it's winning Nobel Prize sticker! I had high hopes for this book. I started to read it and I knew right away I loved her writing. But, I feel like some of the sentences just could of been put together better. It could've been the translating that caused this. I couldn't deal with short choppy sentences that are so heavily poetic. I was getting lost, but I continued on. I thought I was going to like this story so it'd be worth it. But, that didn't happen. I couldn't get through it. I'm a dedicated believer in not forcing myself to read books I don't enjoy reading. I found myself getting confused and constantly reading over pages. I felt like I was wasting my time. But, I do appreciate the wonderful writing and i'm sure it's a lovely novel. I just couldn't find myself to enjoy it enough to push through. I don't like to think of this as a bad review of the book though. I didn't get through it enough to completely judge this book. But if anyone is like me, I don't recommend this book unless you're dedicated.