The 2011 publication of ‘Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything’ heralded the arrival of Daniela Krien in the German literary world, and the book’s lengthy stay in bestseller lists, its translation into fifteen languages, and its soon-to-be released cinematic version, for which shooting was completed in July, all attest to its pervasive and long-lasting appeal.
The work is set against the backdrop of German reunification and occurs in a rural world of forests, fields, and farms. The narrative centres on the seventeen-year-old Maria, an adolescent whose parents separated when she was young and who is still searching for the love and warmth that this robbed her of. Maria abandons her school studies and moves into the family home of her young boyfriend Johannes, but as the flood of new and previously unimagined opportunities to the west begins to wash over the post-Communist world of East Germany, Johannes begins to see more clearly where his dreams and hopes really lie, and with this, his relationship with Maria cools.
But the forces that rock this rural world are driven by other fires, and at the heart of the secrecy and obsession that drives the narrative forward is Maria’s passion. By an act of chance, the track of Maria’s life crosses that of the forty-year-old Henner, a man seen as nothing more than a drunken nobody by his neighbours, and the collision between the two pushes Henner into a hidden but commanding space at the centre of Maria’s life.
‘Someday We'll Tell Each Other’ is written in simple language, but this belies its ability to trip us up and to shock us out of the steady rhythm of life. We, the readers, are invited into a hidden world to which we then become bound, and unwittingly we too have to hold tight to Maria’s secrets. Embedded in this verdant world of endless forests and fields are a thousand untold stories that may never be revealed; lying too deep in the heart to be touched by the breath of words, no power can fashion these into speech.
Back cover blurb
Love is often buried by the stench of lies, and deceit and deception too often suffocates love and destroys our capacity for good. This ancient story unfolds in the life of Maria, an adolescent making the transition from girl to woman who has moved into the house of Johannes, the young man who has been her lover since she dropped out of school. But Maria’s heart is pulled by desires that she cannot fully control, and her willingness to give up her body for love is an overwhelmingly powerful experience. It also becomes increasingly clear that like the reunification of East and West Germany that is happening in the background, what had been imagined as a joining of two separate paths is actually a divergence, and into the gap that opens between these, the 40-year-old Henner steps. The older man’s presence is, however, a secret known only to Maria, us, and the forests, fields, and farms of the area. Maria’s heart-breaking tragedy thus becomes the very lock that keeps it hidden from view.
Daniela Krien was born in Neu-Kaliß, East Germany, in 1975. She studied communication, media, and cultural studies in Leipzig, and has been a freelance writer since 2010. Her debut novel Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything was translated into 15 languages and was awarded the Nicolaus Born Debut Prize. She lives in Leipzig with her two daughters.
‘Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything’
Author: Daniela Krien
Translator: Piyakal Sinprasert
Publisher: Library House
Publication date: September 2022
ISBN: 9786168123850
The translation of this work was supported by a grant from the Goethe-Institut.
