Der Fremde im Spiegel Review

By Jessica Gregory - 15 May 2023

Der Fremde im Spiegel by Erika Kroell was an excellent read, and certainly one I would recommend for those learning German.

When I began reading this, I was one term into my A Level course, and I had read the novel we were studying in class as part of our specification. Both these elements helped to set me up perfectly for this challenging but interesting read.

If you like mystery, this is certainly one of the best books to read. I thought that I would miss out on clues, which would mean that I couldn't guess who committed the crime. However, I was able to guess it (without giving away spoilers!!!) before the end.

This book isn't only a detective novel, however. Kroell develops the characters excellently, which allows the reader to identify with their problems.

I would be lying if I said that this wasn't a challenging read when I began. There was, in the beginning, much vocab that I didn't know. If there were words that continued to come up, I would look these up and actually remember them, which naturally helps my A Level course and development of the language.

However, as I progressed through the book, I was certainly getting faster, and I noticed how I wrote less notes beside each paragraph (I do this in foreign books so I can quickly remember what last happened).

It should be noted that I read this over a period of four months (mainly as I never seemed to have time), so my German will have naturally improved alongside my A Level.

Not only did it allow my German to improve, but it helped to boost my confidence as well, as I was suddenly understanding medical or police terms - obviously, this is outside my specification, but makes you more confident as you realise you're becoming more fluent in

the language.

To say the least, Der Fremde im Spiegel may be a challenging read, but it is certainly accessible, and one that I would definitely recommend.