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The Instant

Updated: Jul 22


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“I needed to get away. I wanted an adult life, restaurants, sexiness, conversation and art. I wanted to meet new people who didn’t know old things about me.”


I read this whilst on holiday in Fuerteventura, this is a great book for sun, sea, sand and a cocktail. I think I read this book in the space of two days.


I'd heard so much about the author and her previous work - The Outrun (which is on my never-ending TBR list 🫣).


The Instant is more mood than story. It’s an intimate portrayal of the author's restlessness and sudden move to Berlin and an exploration of the thin line between isolation and loneliness.


Stepping outside her comfort zone of a quiet life on the island of Orkney and heading to Berlin, Amy Liptrot is in search of new experiences and literary inspiration and also for love. Once there she rents a small bedroom in a loft and immerses herself in city life.


In the digital age, the quest for love is complex, with dating apps revealing digital footprints. Yet, Amy is drawn not only to human connections but also to nature, tracking lunar cycles in each chapter and embarking on nocturnal adventures in search of raccoons.


But this is a brief memoir about love too. She finds a man in Berlin and they intensely fall for each other. Her future is changing in ways that she is not sure of, but that feeling of losing control is almost addictive.


I had mixed feelings about this book. While the concept of structuring chapters around the moon's cycle was initially intriguing, it ultimately felt inconsequential. Instead of delving into reflections on nature and its rhythms, the book predominantly served as a confessional about navigating modern dating and the author's obsessive tendencies in matters of love.


By the end of the book, I was glad to have finished. I was glad to have read this with the sun shining and a cocktail next to me, It got to the point where the author needed to leave the guy, leave Berlin and get on with her life. I think, for me, the book reads more like a snapshot of a moment in time than the reflective narrative it promises.








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