Hermann was invited to give the prestigious Frankfurt Poetics Lectures. These have now been published, slightly edited and in an elegant translation by Katy Derbyshire, as We Would Have Told Each Other Everything. The lectures take the form of three essays written in the register of autofiction. Moving loosely from Hermann’s formative years as a young mother, then delving deeper into her childhood, to finally homing in on her artistic practice, they amount to a long, discursive meditation on writing ... Judith Hermann cannot tell the thing she needs to tell, the thing that is at the heart of her writing. One might consider this a failing. It is a surprise to find that it isn’t – that, in her careful, measured way, she can tell it in this way, and tell it right.
Based upon content from her Frankfurt Poetics Lectures, Hermann examines three areas of inspiration and practice in an effort to 'bring together influence and writing' ... Her conclusions about the forces animating the stories—that she (or her narrator) has told and will tell—are equivocal and dreamy. This thoughtful interrogation of the conscious and unconscious influences on fiction was translated from German by Derbyshire in a direct and matter-of-fact voice. A serious meditation upon one author’s motivations and methods.
In this deeply affecting English-language debut, German writer Hermann reflects on the connections between art and experience, delving into her protagonist’s family history in West Germany and the relationships that shaped her life ... Despite proceeding by association and ranging freely between past and present, the work is tightly and satisfyingly unified by the depth and intelligence of the narration. Readers are fortunate to have this remarkable meditation on family, identity, and writing from a master storyteller.
