"In this novel, everything is fantastic, except for the place: the place is innocent," says Heinrich Böll about "Women in a Landscape with a River". The place is present-day Bonn, not the everyday one but the hidden one. It is the web of human relationships that unfold only behind the scenes.
Böll does not characterize. His heroes, distorted and "unreadable," are nevertheless protagonists on the stage of Bonn. However, women, who usually serve as decorative elements in the background, take center stage here. Within the world of men, a world of intrigues and crude games, women represent the only social morality.
"Women in a Landscape with a River" is Böll's last book, completed in 1985 shortly before his death.