Moving Targets

Momo is the best. Just a few more races and she’ll have made it onto the county team. In all the areas of her life her biggest ambition is to be out there in the front, leading the field. Sarah, the grammar school girl, is beautiful and sad, just waiting for her prince to come along. Jenny, small and a bit plump, somehow doesn’t quite fit in. All she wants is to escape this dull provincial existence – and never again to have to go to Saturday training in the shooting hall. Ette’s main aim is to make some cash, and he doesn’t care if it’s at someone else’s expense. Sarah loves Ticker, but Ticker will do anything Ette asks him to do…
Five teenagers in a small town somewhere in Germany. Their familiar world seems to have become restrictive; family relationships and friendships are growing fragile. School, free time and the shooting club suddenly aren’t enough: the young people are starting to feel there must be something else to life. Just as Momo, Sarah, Jenny, Ette and Ticker’s lives are already beginning to come undone, something happens that completely shatters their realities: there is a party, and Momo is raped. By Ette. After the trial, while Momo, Jenny and Sarah are still trying to deal with what’s happened, Ette manages to escape from prison, just to turn up again at the local shooting festival. What Ette doesn’t know is that Momo has her late grandfather’s pistol in her bag, and that she won’t hesitate for a second to aim it at him…
In punchy, powerful lines, Agnes Hammer depicts one summer’s events in the life of these five teenagers. Alternating between the perspectives of the five main characters, leaving their thoughts uncommented and unfiltered, she finds a language that perfectly expresses the teenage psyche. Moving Targets is a strong debut from a promising young author.