"She had to go so that we, my sister and I, could exist": When the nameless first-person narrator in Julia Schoch's novel "Das Vorkommnis" learns that she has a half-sister, the questions, the doubts, the uncertainties grow .
The writer, who had been told by a woman in the audience when she was signing after a reading that they had the same father, fell on the stranger's neck in an initial reaction.
After her pen — “a line of shock” — derailed on the book's page, leaving a long, deep stroke.
It later becomes clear to her that the existence of this half-sister was not even unknown in the family, since her father, now suffering from cancer, had once been convicted by an alimony receipt.
She was just thoroughly repressed.
What triggers such an experience?
What does it mean to tell your own family story anew, to have to reevaluate it?
How do you put that into a novel?
On June 1st, Julia Schoch was a guest at the Literaturhaus Frankfurt with her book "Das Vorkommnis".
It was moderated by Hauke Hückstädt and Melanie Mühl.
"The Incident - Biography of a Woman" by Julia Schoch was published by dtv, has 192 pages and costs 20 euros.
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