SUSANNE MATTHIESSEN

Sylt - deserted and deserted. Susanne Matthiessen is overwhelmed when she experiences her home island in lockdown for the first time without tourists. All of a sudden, it is nature again that determines the rhythm of island life; the familiar, village-like togetherness of times past comes alive once more. Susanne feels transported back to her childhood. While she explores the lonely island with her friend, her "place of longing" remains a no-go area for hundreds of thousands of other Germans.

The crisis awakens old feelings in Susanne, when Sylt was once before the scene of no less than three major catastrophes in the 1980s, and Westerland - of all places - rose to become the epicenter of the German punk scene. Back then, she and her friends set off from the magical island. Almost all of them made the jump, but not all a life on the sunny side.

Susanne Matthiessen reads from her current bestseller Diese eine Liebe wird nie zu Ende gehen (Ullstein).

Susanne Matthiessen, born in 1963, is a native of Sylt. As a journalist, she processes socio-political developments into program ideas for radio, television and the Internet. For 15 years she was a columnist for the Sylter Rundschau. Her debut Ozelot und Friesennerz. Roman einer Sylter Kindheit (Novel of a Sylt Childhood) was an instant bestseller. Susanne Matthiessen likes living in Berlin, but only really comes alive by the sea.