#RivetingReviews: Ewa Sherman reviews LOVE, AFTER ALL by Ewald Arenz, translated by Rachel Ward

I haven’t read such a moving poignant love story, for a long time. Because that’s what Ewald Arenz’s novel Love, After All is – a modern, complicated and unforgettable love story encompassing a range of emotions, as well as the early experiences that have shaped the main characters, and the excitement and happiness at meeting another person who returns those sentiments.

Told with consideration and insight, from two points of view, and written with tenderness, this nuanced novel kept me engrossed, but also regularly made me want to stop to compose myself, for example after a particularly strong description of everyday struggles, or to take in yet another interesting thought, or to remember a sentence, think about the words, keep them as a quote for the future. For example, this passage perfectly describes the initial attraction between Clara and Elias: ‘Their conversations were like fencers’ training bouts. Playful, but you had to be fully present at all times. Alert. Inventive and skilful. She kept him on his toes.’ The pair’s intellectual curiosity and ease of talking and joking open the way for other connections: ‘He makes me smile, just by being there. By being who he is.’

Clara And Elias’s first meeting is not intentional. It occurs because Vera, Elias’s girlfriend, arranges for the couple to view Clare’s cottage, which is for sale. Strong-willed Clare, widowed and hiding in the tower she’s built for herself, wants to protect herself from being hurt by love again. She’s also dealing with losing her job and trying to find a new path as an unemployed photographer, as well as caring from afar for her mother, who has dementia. Her closest friend is her brother Jan.

Thirty-something actor Elias, handsome, charismatic and seemingly trapped in a relationship, suppresses his deepest feelings and seems set on staying with Vera only because they’re used to one another and it’s convenient. Aware of not being honest or truthful, he doesn’t believe in giving himself completely to the relationship: ‘We said at the start that we wouldn’t fall in love. That it would be just that – non-committal.’He focuses more on building a good connection with his teenage daughter Jule. Yet the chance encounter with the older Clare changes everything: their way of thinking about past and future and finding the strength to express their vulnerability and to describe their dreams. The sensations that are unleashed are real, genuine and overwhelming, and at the same time fragile and indestructible.

However, no one can plan life. Fate or reality steps in. When Clare takes a new job in another part of the country she also decides to end their relationship, scared of being abandoned by Elias, and doing it before he does. She fears that the long distance and their age difference have doomed them already. Then Elias falls seriously ill, and the new fragile, delicate status quo is destroyed once more. What follows is a deeply emotional and beautifully subtle portrait of people facing extremely difficult choices and learning about themselves along the way.

Ewald Arenz delivers a masterclass in understanding what life is about. It’s easy to identify with the various situations in the novel – they will be familiar to everyone, both the prosaic ones and the big questions about matters of the heart and the relationships between people. Rachel Ward’s translation superbly conveys the simple and timeless themes or the exquisite and powerful German original. This is a novel to be treasured.

Reviewed by Ewa Sherman

LOVE, AFTER ALL

Written by Ewald Arenz

Translated by Rachel Ward

Published by Orenda Books (2026)

June 2026 #RivetingReviews titles are available to buy from bookshop.org.

Ewa Sherman is a writer, translator and critic. She studied Polish Literature and Language, and Law, and worked with the Polish media. She’s translated several books of sonnets written by her mother Krystyna Konecka from Polish to English.

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