Places
The Dorn
A short, fast mountain river, dammed above a village
The Dorn is a mountain river in an Alpine valley, 38 kilometers long, running from a cirque where snow still lies in July to the point where it flows into a larger river. Over its first 26 kilometers it drops so steeply that the contour lines crowd together along it. On most days it runs green and cold over the stones. When it rains for two days, or the snow melts all at once, it turns brown, loud, and wider than its bed within a few hours. Along the steep stretch it is dammed behind a wall, for power and against floods. Everything in the valley depends on it: the road, the houses, the power plant named after it.
First encounter
- First noticed: the name, which on first reading tells Lena only that it is short and sounds hard, “and not like the sea”
- Object: the map on which the reservoir appears as a blue patch with a straight edge
Connected to
- UnterdornThe village below the dam, with one bridge out
- Dorn Reservoir (Dam and Power Plant)Reservoir, dam, and a power plant deep in the mountain
- The Town at the ConfluenceWhere the valley ends and the only road leads
- Lena VossOceanographer at the ICRU in Hamburg, following a falling line
- Anna KesslerLower Elbe emergency manager who has known Lena thirteen years
Spoiler-free. This describes the starting point of the book named, without its major twists or resolutions.