Sharon Dodua Otoo

Norah is in her early forties and has been living in Berlin since the nineties. She studied art, started a family and works as a teacher. Everything was fine until her husband Tom was murdered by right-wing extremists. That was almost three years ago, when she was sitting in front of the TV on a Sunday evening with her sons Lukas and Emil to watch ‘Tatort’. But somehow Norah suddenly doesn't understand anything anymore. Her German is gone. She can no longer speak it, read it or understand it. And this as a teacher. Just before the naturalisation test is due to take place next week. And just before Lukas moves out of home to start his training as a police officer.
Norah is desperate: how and where can you lose the German language? And can Huda, her best friend, help her to find it again? And what are the ‘Narrator’ and Bert, his self-proclaimed whisperer, doing in her living room? Are they just annoying mansplainers or can they help with the search? While Norah wrestles with the two of them for the interpretive sovereignty of her own narrative, to make matters worse, Norah's son Emil disappears without a trace. Time is running out, because Emil's blood sugar app is already showing red, and Norah must act urgently.
Sharon Dodua Otoo manages to tell a German story in two languages – German and English – with a great deal of absurd humour. And a story about Norah, who is suddenly forced to face the realities of her life in Germany.