Hermann, Judith
We’d Have Told Each Other Everything
€14.99
On a dark night in Berlin’s Kastanienallee, acclaimed writer Judith Hermann runs into her psychoanalyst — a chance encounter that sparks this radically original work of autofiction. Here, the fluid boundaries between memoir and invention offer a magical exploration of how writing transforms both what we remember and what we allow ourselves to forget. Winner of the Wilhelm Raabe Prize in 2023.
Description
On a dark night in Berlin’s 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.
TL;DR version: This remarkable work of autofiction offers a magical exploration of memory and truth-telling. Through intimate details from the writer's life, it reveals how writing transforms both what we remember and what we allow ourselves to forget.
Praise for We'd Have Told Each Other Everything
'Many of the things she describes in this book are relatable to anyone who has suffered trauma, particularly in childhood. So often, one can't find a way out of silence. It's often the whole purpose of therapy to be able to finally tell someone everything... She achieves something quite magical – she lets us know a lot about herself and her writing process, but she also allows us to discover ourselves more deeply... I'm not entirely sure I managed to capture how much I loved this book. But I did. It will make my end of year best of. It was one of those books I didn't want to end.' —Caroline, Beauty is a Cat Sleeping.
Author
Judith Hermann was born in Berlin in 1970. Her debut Summer House, Later (1998) was extraordinarily well received. She followed up in 2003 with the short stories Nothing But Ghosts, some of which were dramatised for cinema in 2007. Her internationally celebrated collection Alice came out in 2009. Judith Hermann published her first novel, Where Love Begins, in 2014, followed by Letti Park in 2016, which was awarded the Danish Blixen Prize for short stories. Her 2021 novel Daheim was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. Judith Hermann has won numerous awards for her work, including the Kleist Prize and the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize. Her most recent book, We’d Have Told Each Other Everything, was awarded the Wilhelm Raabe Prize in 2023. She lives and writes in Berlin.
Translator
Katy Derbyshire translates contemporary German writers, including Olga Grjasnowa, Inka Parei and twice-Booker-nominated Clemens Meyer. She lives in Berlin, where she heads the V&Q Books publishing imprint and co-hosts a monthly translation lab. She is co-founder of the live show and podcast Dead Ladies Show.
