I should probably confess my passion for such novels up front. Does a better vehicle exist for exploring family relationships, love, sex, self-realisation and redemption? As an adult reader, the trick seems to be to find books on the subject that live up to Maurice Sendak's pronouncement: "I don't write for children. I don't write for adults. I just write."
Steinhofel just writes. Centre of My World transports us convincingly into the heart of a dysfunctional family in a huge crumbling mansion in northern Germany, and then gently, quietly, begins to unfurl, gathering power as it progresses by the accretion of sensitively observed detail.