{"product_id":"i-keep-my-shadow-light","title":"I Keep My Shadow Light","description":"\u003cp\u003eBerlin: Europe’s promised city. But like many new arrivals, Maeve is struggling to get the basics down. No permanent home, no job, no lasting romance or reliable friendships. Just the arms of the German state, sweeping her into its heady, bureaucratic embrace.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story begins on Maeve’s first day of an integration course – a requirement for her unemployment benefits. For the next seven months, this group of migrants and misfits will grow together and fall apart, as they are pushed to integrate, assimilate, and learn the language in order to get a job. We witness police barging into the classroom, a racist supply teacher, a troubled classmate suffering PTSD, and tense debates about ‘why women are best suited to placing the flowers on the table’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDespite the revolving door of classmates and supply teachers, the course offers Maeve a sense of grounding, community, and unlikely friendships with her classmates.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere’s \u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eViktor\u003c\/span\u003e, escaping persecution in Chechnya. His sharp tongue and hard-set expression disguise his softer parts. Partying and caring for his flatmate Svenja distract him from his internal monsters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eZehra\u003c\/span\u003e moved to Berlin for an arranged marriage with a German-Turkish man. She is hardworking, neat and sweet, but brewing frustrations. She does not feel properly ‘seen’ by her in-laws or her classmates.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eKaram,\u003c\/span\u003e Maeve’s flatmate, fled war in Syria. His warm and open demeanour leaves him vulnerable to being moulded by Berlin’s rough hands. After four years in Germany without seeing his family, he feels estranged from integral parts of himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd \u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eMaeve\u003c\/span\u003e, from the UK. She’s a dreamer, an overthinker, and has a dose of millennial insecurity. She puts her energy into trying to fix the world around her and looking for love in the wrong places, ignoring the lack of love she feels for herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe follow the ups and downs of these four 20-something-year-olds as they struggle to get a grip on who they are and attempt to build a lasting home in a disposable new world. The story expands beyond the classroom, into a dysfunctional shared flat, bars, the good old Jobcenter, toilet cubicles, freezing living rooms, and then just roams around the streets, spinning out into something.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book tackles themes of urban loneliness, the complicated relationships between the state and the individual, dominant culture and subcultures, family members, friends, flatmates and lovers. It looks at how these relationships are affected by political and religious views, or formed despite them. The setting – Berlin – alludes to how history plays a hand in the present, and how quickly a place and its people can change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eI Keep My Shadow Light \u003c\/span\u003eis a darkly funny social commentary novel about feeling lost and learning how to belong.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eFormat: Paperback \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePublished:  2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePublisher: \u003ci\u003e\u003cspan itemprop=\"publisher\"\u003eLost \u0026amp; Found Books\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePages: 304\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eLanguage: English  \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eISBN: \u003cspan\u003e9781919489308\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fionnuala Kavanagh","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57510752026955,"sku":null,"price":19.9,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/8755\/1819\/files\/Screenshot2026-06-04at17.51.47.png?v=1780588329","url":"https:\/\/desirelinesbookstore.com\/products\/i-keep-my-shadow-light","provider":"desirelines books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}