Book Review: Die Assistentin by Caroline Wahl

Die Assistentin is Caroline Wahl’s third novel, and I came to it having genuinely enjoyed both of its predecessors. Her debut 22 Bahnen was a strong first book, and Windstärke 17 was, in my view, an improvement on it: a step up in storytelling, emotional range, and momentum. The first two novels were loosely connected. This one stands alone.

The Author

Caroline Wahl is a German author who lives in Kiel. She published her debut 22 Bahnen in 2023 and became one of the most widely read and discussed German-language authors almost immediately. Both her first two novels reached bestseller lists, and 22 Bahnen was adapted for film in 2025. She is also one of the more polarizing figures in the German literary world at the moment: admired for her accessibility and emotional directness, and criticized in equal measure by parts of the feuilleton that treat commercial success with suspicion.

What the Book Is About

Charlotte is in her late twenties, working as an assistant to a powerful and demanding publisher named Ugo Maise. The job is gradually consuming her: the boundary violations accumulate, the personal costs grow, and the life she might have had, including a career in music and a relationship she values, is being eroded from below. The novel traces her path through this environment and, eventually, out of it.

The premise is solid and draws on a setting Wahl knows well. The publisher world provides a specific and recognizable backdrop for a story about power, self-assertion, and the cost of remaining in situations that demand too much of you.

My Assessment

The writing is genuinely good. Wahl’s prose has a quality to it that is easy to read without feeling thin, and her dialogue is sharp. On that level, the book delivers what her readers expect.

Where it did not work for me was the story itself. The narrative structure leans heavily on flash-forwards that repeatedly allude to an approaching catastrophe, building tension through implication rather than statement. It is a deliberate choice, and initially it creates momentum. But the catastrophe is never named, never fully realized, and the book ends on an open note that leaves the reader with questions rather than resolution. That openness might be intentional, but it felt less like a considered ending and more like the story simply stopped before arriving anywhere.

The first two books told stories that stayed with me. Both had something to take away. Here I came away with a feeling that not much had happened, and that more than three hundred pages had been spent arriving there.

There is also something in this book that reads as written for an audience beyond the reader. If you have followed the discussion around Caroline Wahl over the past couple of years, you may share the impression that Die Assistentin is, among other things, a bid for a different kind of literary recognition. Whether that produces better writing is a separate question. In this case it produces something more self-conscious and less alive than her earlier work.

The first two books earned their readership straightforwardly. This one is harder to recommend to anyone who has already read them.

References

• Die Assistentin - Caroline Wahl - link