The protagonist of Herta Müller’s Traveling on One Leg is Irene, a fragile woman, born to a German family in Romania, who has recently emigrated from Romania to Germany.
The novel focuses on Irene’s relationship with three men: Franz, whom she met in Romania and who is unwilling to respond to her love for him; Stefan, a friend of Franz’s; and Thomas, a bookseller in perpetual crisis about his identity.
Despite her being born to a German family, Irene’s place in Germany is as a recent émigré and an unassimilated Romanian German.
She feels neither longing for Romania nor any comfort in her newly adopted Germany. Politically and socially isolated, Irene moves within the emotional orbit of these three men, while at the same time moving between West Berlin, Marburg, and Frankfurt, taking a dissonant journey within strange yet familiar territory.
Characterized by a sense of profound isolation, Traveling on One Leg is a poignant exploration of exile, homeland, and identity.
