The translator Anna-Nina Kroll

It's about Debbie, who lives on a farm with her uncle, her mother, and her mother's boyfriend, about an hour away from Dublin. She gets accepted into the prestigious Trinity College, but feels like an outsider there and has trouble making friends. Depression is a theme for her – and her mother's mental issues. Her mother has instilled in her the belief that she dreams the dreams of other people – and that some things in them also come true.

It's a mix of a college and family novel. Despite all the sadness, it has a lot of humor and a certain lightness. Thematically, it revolves a lot around communication problems. Debbie often struggles to express her feelings verbally. From my perspective, this makes it a very contemporary book. And there are some magical-surreal elements that make the book particularly interesting.

When I started the translation, I had just returned from a stay at Trinity College. That's why I recognized many places again. Additionally, I liked the characters and the themes discussed in the novel. Time and again it deals with mental illnesses. In other books, these are often hard for me to bear. But in "Snowflake," the associated problems are presented in a very refreshing way. And I just like books that are set in Ireland.

The language is youthful and direct, but often poetic in the narrative passages. The book is very easy to read; it just flows by. I noticed this while translating: it flowed easily from my fingers, and I didn't have to revise each sentence over and over again.