Nun red doch endlich

by Mirjam Pressler

Bei Karin klappt eigentlich alles. Sie ist gut in der Schule und kommt auch mit ihrer kleinen Schwester Moni zurecht, obwohl die mit sieben Jahren immer noch ins Bett macht. Aber dann wird Karin auf einmal krank. "Man könnte es einen Nervenzusammenbruch nennen, sagt der Arzt, und Karin kommt zu einem Psychologen. Dort schweigt sie sich aus - darin hat sie Übung. Aber dann spricht sie doch von ihrem großen Problem: Moni und sie sind unehelich geboren und wissen nichts von ihren Vätern. Und auf einmal passiert schon fast zu viel. Da ist ihre Freundin Alex und dann noch Tommy, und die Mutter hat einen Freund. Vor allem aber fängt Karin an, sich selbst zu helfen, und das ist viel einfacher, als sie gedacht hat.

Genres: Young Adult

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

German writer Mirjam Pressler is the author of several novels that have won awards in her native Germany and also received high praise from critics after being translated into English. In Malka and Halinka Pressler focuses on young Jewish protagonists who have been forced by fate to endure the Holocaust, while in Shylock's Daughter she returns readers to fifteenth-century Italy as she attempts to answer haunting questions surrounding the motivations of characters in a popular play by William Shakespeare. While receiving notice for her novels, Pressler is most well known for her work revising the diaries of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank, and she is considered an expert on Franks's life and writings. In addition to translating Frank's famous diary from Dutch into German, Pressler has edited The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition and has also authored Anne Frank: A Hidden Life for younger readers. Winner of the 1994 German Youth Literature Prize for her work, Pressler divided her time between homes in Bavaria and Israel.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I really do wish that I had known about Mirjam Pressler's brilliant and evocative Nun red doch endlich (basically roughly translated as, just talk, will you, in English) when it was first published in 1981 (and I was having some rather heavy personal issues both at school and at home and would have appreciated reading a German language young adult novel that featured a female teenaged protagonist with at least somewhat and partially similar issues and feelings of despair).

Karin's many struggles (although at first she is row course rather good at successfully hiding them, at keeping silence, swallowing them, pretending that these issues do not even exist) and her gradual opening up, her gradual reliance on talking things over and out with her psychologist, her assigned therapist, are both painful and optimistic, although as an adult reader, I do wish that there had been somewhat more blame and responsibility cast by author Mirjam Pressler at Karin's mother. For while in and of herself a generally positively described character and obviously a hardworking individual (a single parent) who often struggles to make both ends meet, the mother does keep far too many secrets from her eldest daughter in particular and also often uses her as a convenient emotional garbage can so to speak, casting responsibilities, such as for example, the problems with little sister Moni who is easily frightened and at seven years of age still a bed-wetter at Karin simply because the latter seems both willing and able to take these on, to deal with them (and seemingly also blissfully, painfully unaware that her older daughter is slowly drowning in her own feelings, in stress, simply swallowing and swallowing her own problems and questions until she becomes despondent and both physically and emotionally ill). And although the mother does indeed finally open up a bit and even tells Karin about her absent father (namely that Karin is the result of a one night stand and that the mother does not even know his identity), I also think that she at least should have been a bit more attuned to Karin's precarious mental health right from the start and that she was most definitely pushing far far too much responsibility and too many demands at and onto her eldest daughter (basically often putting Karin into the parental role and not the child role she is supposed to inhabit, an unfortunate scenario that even at the end of the book, still seems to at least sometimes be the norm). However, that all being said, and even with these minor personal quibbles, Nun red doch endlich still is and remains one of my all time favourite novels by Mirjam Pressler (and most highly recommend, although a high intermediate level of fluency in German is definitely and strongly suggested, as unfortunately, there is no English language translation of Nun red doch endlich, which I for one do consider rather unfortunate, as Nun red doch endlich does truly present universal family dysfunction scenarios).

[Nina Mielke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mirjam Pressler versteht es einfach, Kinderbücher zu schreiben.
Karin kümmert sich rührend um ihre Schwester Moni, tröstet die Mama und ist überhaupt für alle da. Doch wo bleibt sie selbst? In ihrem Hinterkopf schlummert der Gedanke, dass sie nicht einmal weiß, wer ihr Vater ist. Karin muss erst krank werden, um zu erkennen, dass man manchmal auch sich selbst helfen muss.
Ein wundervolles Buch.

[Lore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stumbled upon this book in the book box of my village. I was looking for an easy read as to be the first book I would read in German. For my level (A2->B1) this was perfect. Challenging enough that I would need to go to the dictionary regularly, but just at the right grammatical level I needed. The story itself is simple, daily life, relatable and touching as it deeps into single-parenthood, teenage struggles and mental health. Extremely relevant today as it describes ways through teenage emotions and conflicts that can follow up to adulthood. Overall it gives the message that everyone needs help sometimes navigating feelings and it is okay to seek for professional help too! I wish my writing confidence would let me write this review in German!