Life and literature

‘The sound of a new generation’ was the description of Judith Hermann’s literary debut, Sommerhaus, später (Summer House, Later, translated by Margot Bettauer Dembo) when it was published in 1998, and Hermann was referred to as Germany’s most promising author.

She has since written three anthologies of short stories, and published her first novel Aller Liebe Anfang (Where Love Begins, translated by Margot Bettauer Dembo) in 2014. In 2021 it was followed by the novel Daheim (Home).

The books circle atmospherically and melancholically around themes such as longing, loss and disillusionment, but are also marked by their stylistically strict form and the unspoken in the text.

In 2022 Hermann’s poetry lectures at the Goethe Institute in Frankfurt were published under the title Wir hätten uns alles gesagt: Schweigen und Verschweigen im Schreiben (We should have told each other everything ‘We’ll be back there’).

The book gives insight into the connections between writing and life and are a good basis for a conversation about Judith Hermann’s writing. She meets Øystein Vidnes for a conversation, which will be in German and simultaneously translated into Norwegian.