Daniela Dröscher

A family and a theme that dominates everything – the mother’s body weight.

Lügen über meine Mutter (2022) is two things at once: the narrative of a childhood in the 1980s, which is increasingly dominated by the father’s fixed idea that his wife’s excess weight is responsible for everything that is denied him. And it is a questioning of the events from today’s perspective: What really happened back then? What was concealed, what was lied about? And what does all this tell us about the bigger picture: the society that constantly affects us.

Relentlessly and impressively, Daniela Dröscher lets her childlike alter ego relive the years in which this “chamber play called family” took place. A novel about subtle violence, but also about responsibility and care.

Dr. Daniela Dröscher, born in 1977, writes prose, essays and theater texts. She is a member of the PEN Center Germany and has received numerous awards; Lügen über meine Mutter (2022) was nominated for the German Book Prize 2022. She has been a minister in the “Ministry of Compassion” since fall 2018.