Proleterka

Aboard the *Proleterka*—a ship with a Slavic name and a red star on its rust-stained funnel—a group of respectable German-speaking tourists sets off on a cruise to Greece. Among the passengers are a man with a slight limp and his daughter, who has not yet turned sixteen. Father and daughter are complete strangers. During the voyage, the daughter seeks to learn more about this man of whom she knows nothing; yet she also yearns to discover something else entirely unknown to her: life itself—and the *Proleterka* is the setting for her initiation. Years later, that cruise will transform into a journey to the land of the dead, among those beings who "take their time coming out to meet us" and "call out when they sense we have become prey and the time has come for the hunt."