Sabine Kuegler

Sabine Kuegler, “jungle child” and torn between two cultures, often returns to Papua in the course of her life – to where she grew up. During one of these trips, she falls seriously ill, is considered to be out of therapy and makes one last desperate attempt to save herself: she leaves Germany again and goes back to the jungle to find a cure. There she experiences adventures that many people find hard to believe. It is only after five years that she returns and talks for the first time about her search for healing, happiness and her place in life.

Sabine Kuegler grew up in the jungles of West Papua in Indonesia. She spent her entire childhood and youth with the Fayu tribe, an indigenous people. She recorded her experiences in her bestseller Jungle Child, published in 2005. It was only years later that she returned to this place as an adult. In her new novel Ich schwimme nicht mehr da, wo Krokodile sind (2023), Kuegler reflects on her own identity between the two cultures and questions whether our civilization is making us ill.