Wetlands
Harper Collins
With her jaunty dissection of the sex life and the private grooming habits of the novel s 18 year old narrator Helen Memel Charlotte Roche has turned the previously unspeakable into the national conversation in Germany Since its debut in February the novel Feuchtgebiete in German has sold more than 680 000 copies and is the biggest selling book on Amazon anywhere in the world The book is a headlong dash through every crevice and byproduct physical and psychological of its narrator s body and mind It is difficult to overstate the raunchiness of the novel Wetlands opens in a hospital room after an intimate shaving accident It gives a detailed topography of Helen s hemorrhoids continues into the subject of anal intercourse and only gains momentum from there eventually reaching avocado pits as objects of female sexual satisfaction and here is where the debate kicks in just possibly female empowerment Clearly the novel has struck a nerve catching a wave of popular interest in renewing the debate over women s roles and image in society
