Those who have money and live in the big city like to buy a penthouse.

High up, to have nothing to do with the problems of the common people.

But she usually lives further down - the lower the income, the smaller and darker it gets.

The signs of who is at the top and who is at the bottom of our society are not difficult to read.

"Unten", the dystopian novel by fantasy author Maja Ilisch, turns this image into a story.

It is about Nevo, a girl who lives in a seemingly never-ending skyscraper, a house with no exit or outside world.

The floors are divided into different colors that assign the residents to a social class.

Nevo and her best friend Juma live on "Zinnober vier", which, as you can see from the descriptions of the apartments, would probably be assigned to the lower middle class.

The entire life of the residents takes place in the respective section of the house: this is where the school and the workplace are.

Excursions to other sections are strictly prohibited, and anyone who breaks this rule will likely never be able to return home.

Not entirely unrealistic

This gives the impression of a Big Brother-like world right from the first pages of the book: When the girls run back and forth in the hallway to get a little exercise, they are overwhelmed by an invisible entity, the property manager, who sees everything and hear, admonish.

But it gets worse.

When Juma hides in the laundry chute for fear of the property management guards, she disappears without a trace.

In the apartment next to Nevo, another girl moves in instead, Miu, who everyone (including Juma's and Nevo's mothers) say has always been there - and that a Juma never existed.

Nevo then goes in search of her friend, rushes down the laundry chute like the rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland" and enters a completely different, only partially threatening world.

Because the "dirty pack" on the lower floors is much friendlier than its reputation would suggest.

The real dangers lie elsewhere.

The horrible thing about this novel, as is generally the case with good, because truthful, dystopias is the fact that the things that are told here are never entirely unrealistic.

Of course, high-rise buildings come to an end at some point, but basically Ilisch only takes what is created in our society to the extreme: the division into classes, which can be recognized by certain characteristics - better clothes, neater staircases and so on - and those through this affiliation certain things are entitled and not others.

It is sometimes difficult to break out in our world.

In the novel it's almost impossible - at least if you want to get to the top.

Freedom through rule-breaking

This is also due to the comprehensive monitoring of all residents.

In order to endure the lack of freedom in their lives under control, they convince themselves in the novel that they only want what they have.

Therefore, Luus, who is locked up there during her night shifts in the laundry, cannot recognize this fact as such.

Although she sees that the door is closed: "But I would only be locked in if I wanted to leave."

This is reminiscent of the trivialization of digital surveillance: why should anyone care what the average person thinks and does?

Ilisch's novel shows that you don't need to break the rules to be afraid and accept limitations.

Many residents of the house never cross borders - and are still not free.

Because they don't dare to question the status quo.

Nevo's mother, for example, speaks of the far too small one-room apartment as a "good apartment", as if she were afraid that if she made the slightest mistake, it could also be taken away from her.

In the novel, liberation is achieved thanks to courage, a certain amount of madness - and solidarity.

In the end, Nevo comes up with the idea of ​​replacing the house rules with different ones, and in doing so frees not only her friend Juma, but the whole house at once.

Because an individual, the novel says, can gain freedom by breaking the rules.

But "if you want everyone else to be free too," Nevo and her new boyfriend Mat recognize, "then you have to change the rules."

Enough room for interpretation

Fortunately, "Below" doesn't answer all open questions.

We don't find out what's behind the ominous property management.

Perhaps the gentleman whose photo is next to the house rules?

Or an artificial intelligence that gives instructions to human employees?

The fact that monitoring only works with what is available speaks in favor of the latter.

When Nevo and her friends change the rules, they suddenly apply.

Readers can decide whether they are happy about this happy ending - or think about whether it is not exactly clouded at this point: Because how much has the world changed if all the rules that exist are adopted?

What if it was basically a coincidence that a bright eight-year-old girl had the opportunity and not someone with even more sinister intentions than the previous author's?

Is there resistance?

In the novel, the behavior of some characters speaks in favor and that of many against.

Enough room for interpretation - and for a sequel.

Because Nevo didn't make it outside either on her trip.

Maja Ilisch: "Below"

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Novel.

Dressler Verlag, Hamburg 2023. 304 p., hardcover, €16.

From 10 years