Anette Selg's "Motherfatherchild" brought the 32nd German Literature Days virtually to a close. The last text - sponsored by Klaus Nüchtern - left the jury somewhat at odds with each other.

"From cocaine to yoga"

"Miss Selg has a very difficult position after Tilman Rammstedt - one was cocaine, now we cross over to yoga which obviously requires a change in our receptive stance", said Ijoma Mangold by way of introduction. "The text is constructed very specifically and solidly told. The monotony of everyday married life is "not a particularly exciting question, however", the juror conceded.

"You want to sit with the woman in the sun"

Daniela Strigl felt similarly: "As the characters were saying good night I felt like saying the same thing" - that was to do with the author's reading, however, and not the text. "Family affinities light" you could say, said Strigl, although the premises of the text is that "nothing happens". The text possess a great pull: "You are taken by the feeling of being on holiday, you want to sit with the woman in the sun".

Heiz found the text unnecessarily florid

Andre Heiz gave voice to his concern of whether or not the banality of everyday life was turned into an ornament here with much "pseudo-profundity". It is unnecessarily florid and a text which confuses complex with complicated.  

"Showing people who have reached the limits of their existence is a great challenge, but there are also texts about the avoidance of catastrophe - or the identity of both. That seems to be the intention here, too, said Spinnen. The remit is interesting, but the text concerns itself so much with this task that it builds bridges for it all over the place.

Sulzer also "dreamt of the sea"

Alain Claude Sulzer said that this "extremely cautious" texts, with its "beautiful atmosphere" was one of the few well-concluded short stories. "Whilst I was reading it, I longed for the sea, but it was very cool there, too."

The aesthetic of a German television play

The theme, the tragic latency of the text, in which "nothing breaks out" also pleased Ursula März. There is too little left out for there to be real "suspense", however: "It has the aesthetics of a German television play", there was too little mystery.

"The storyline could tip either way"

Latency is a good headword, said Klaus Nüchtern, because the storyline could easily tip either way. Holiday affairs have been written about a hundred times, the protagonist,however, has reached a point following an affair where she is perhaps thinking: "My God, perhaps this whole business won't pay off."

 Anette Selg's text