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Winner of the Wilhelm Raabe Prize in 2023

On a dark night in Berlins Kastanienallee, acclaimed writer Judith Hermann runs into her psychoanalyst a chance encounter that begins an exploration of the fluid boundaries between truth and invention, memoir and fiction. Through three interconnected essays in prose, precise yet dreamlike Judith Hermann captures those moments when reality shifts: a friendship that unravels, salt-bright summers on the North Sea, an unconventional childhood, and the weight of familial trauma. Part literary meditation, part memoir, part novel, this work explores the delicate art of transforming life into literature, challenging our deepest and sometimes darkest assumptions about memory, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves.