For the first time in book form: four notes of thanks by Marie-Luise Scherer for prizes awarded to her. But more importantly, four feats of prose, in which she writes about her life.
Marie-Luise Scherer once described her writing as a labour of syllables; every sentence has to fit like a glove. Her exacting standards as far as the accuracy of observation and artistry of formulation are concerned to be one of the reasons why so few of her texts have made their way to the public. However, the small number she has released for publication have been met with great and lasting admiration. Readers, fellow authors, the juries of literary prizes have all been equally fascinated by her work.
In recent years, Marie-Luise Scherer has been awarded several famous literary prizes. Being required to write notes of thanks, she used this opportunity to produce pieces of prose about the people who have been and are important to her in her life: her grandparents, her parents, family relationships. She turns her attention to things that are often overlooked, things that appear to have little consequence, the creaturely world, animals. The way in which she raises these topics is quite unique.
This volume is a collection of four of these notes of thanks, addressed not only to the prize-givers, but primarily to the people they refer to. Great literature.
»Marie-Luise Scherer can do anything.«
Gustav Seibt, Süddeutsche Zeitung
Marie-Luise Scherer was born in Saarbrücken in 1938, worked as a journalist in Berlin for many years. She earned her legendary reputation for her literary reports in the magazine Spiegel, for which she worked for over 25 years. Prizes awarded to Marie-Luise Scherer include the Ludwig Börne Prize (1994), the Italo Svevo Prize (2008), the Heinrich Mann Prize (2011) and the Saarland Art Prize (2012).
