Inseparable
Page 26
Marie Erdmann sent me a Christmas card. Did you know her husband left her a woman he works with? Marie is outraged, some red-haired tart apparently, and she wants her to drop dead.
Linda Love is coming to Hamburg the day after tomorrow. She’s in Germany with her family, and we’ve made plans to go for a meal at Indochine—it makes sense; I had such a great night there before. At first she suggested we both wear patent leather red shoes so we’d recognize each other. But then we agreed to put a box of Band-Aids on the table, because we always used to mess up our knees rollerblading. I’m really looking forward to it.
There’s quite a lot going on with me at the moment, too. In January I got a call from a publisher. He’s called Dr. Frank Fuchs and is from a paperback publishing house. His wife read my columns and really liked them. He suggested that I publish a collected volume of them. It’s going to be called “My Friend Karola” and will be published next autumn. I’m spending every evening on it. Just imagine, a real book, I’m really excited! It’s a lot of work, but fun, too.
I’ll have to dedicate it to Sven, because the poor guy has to listen to what I’ve written every evening, and I have the feeling he’s starting to hate Karola.
Apart from that he’s really fantastic; he carries my groceries in, makes me coffee, opens bottles of wine, and does what he in short calls “author support.”
He suggested that I give notice on my apartment and move in with him. At the moment we’re commuting back and forth. I’ve promised to think about it. First of all I want to deal with a few of my “responsibilities”; I’m worried that otherwise our re-invigorated friendships will sink into oblivion again and that would be a shame.
Gudrun, I hope everything continues to go really well for you. We’ll see each other in May, and I can’t wait!
Until then, all my love,
Your Christine
Christine folded the letter up and tucked it into an envelope. As she wrote Gudrun’s address, she heard steps in the hallway, and a few moments later, the sound of a key in the front door.
The End
I would like to thank Kristina Arnold, Claudia Danners, Marietta Frick, Anne Haupt, Monika Köhler, Laura and Melanie Köttner, Gabriele Mertl, Christine Rulph, and Michaela Ullrich. You all already know why. And my editor, Silvia Schmid, who also knows.
Dora Heldt
Dora Heldt, born in 1961 on the North Sea island of Sylt, trained as a bookseller. Since 1992, she has been working as a sales representative for a publisher and lives in Hamburg. Her novel Vacation with Dad became one of the bestselling titles of the year 2008 and was on the best-seller list for sixty-one weeks.
Author photo (c) Regina Geisler.
Jamie Lee Searle is a translator from German into English, translating literary fiction, short stories, and articles for publishing houses and organizations throughout Europe and the US. She lives in London and in addition to translating also teaches German language and translation at Queen Mary, University of London. In late 2009 she co-founded the publishing collective And Other Stories, which seeks to promote and publish international literature in translation in the UK.
Photo courtesy of the translator.