“Wild Wuchern” is an Austrian book written by Katharina Köller and the one I finished the most recent. The tile directly translates to grow wildly but the German translation is much calmer. It is about two main characters, cousins, called Johanna and Marie. Johanna lives in a small hut where she is totally self-sufficient. Marie lives in Vienna where she is married to a rich, violent man. Basically they are total opposites. Johanna really connected to nature doesn’t care about other people at all. Marie a total people pleaser who cares more about everyone else than herself. One day Marie has to escape from Vienna because, how we got told by the end of the book, she tried to kill her husband because everything got too much for her, so she runs to Johannas hut to hide. Her being there is hard for both of them Johanna wants to be alone, Marie doesn’t want to be up there either but she has to. One quote which in my opinion captures Marie perfectly is. “Ich war dort, wo man mich hingepflanzt hat, wie ein Ziergewächs in einem Topf. Jetzt bin ich hier und wuchere.”(p.108) or “I was where they planted me, like an ornamental plant in a pot. Now I’m here and thriving.” It shows that Marie now that she is on the mountain only with her cousin who barely speaks, she can finally be herself make the decisions she wants to make, not the ones others want her to. In the end of the book Johanna opens up to Marie and allows her to stay which is in my opinion great for both of them.