She has already crossed continents twice with her parents and changed her name along the way. Now Aga is moving to the ‘land of murderers,’ as she has heard it called. Arriving at a house belonging to the Jewish community, the little girl sets out to find them. Erik Ode, the police inspector she meets on television, helps her in her search.
Lessmann’s autobiographical novel subtly tells how the silence of the survivors becomes a burden for their descendants – and how her adolescent protagonist, with shrewd self-assertion, never gives up hope of healing.
After the anti-Semitic agitation of the Polish Communist Party in 1968 forced her parents to leave their homeland, Aga comes via Israel to Germany. There is something strange about the house where she now lives. It stands next to a barracks where American soldiers spend their free time on the tennis court, and the garden of a former monastery where hippies plant trees. In between, childish fantasies run rampant. The secret finally breaks through in an actual murder.
Growing up among former perpetrators and their descendants, she tries to escape the underlying tensions and resentments in her environment by conforming – and in doing so loses herself. Even her only way of staying in touch with herself, writing poetry, comes to an abrupt end when the German teacher who encourages her turns out to be a former member of the National Socialist Party.
As she gets older and meets other people with difficult identities, she begins to search for her own roots. Step by step, Aga fills in the gaps in her memories. To do so, however, she must first rediscover her real name. But with her name and her memories, she also finds a true friend.
Her language and understanding mature along with the main character. A novel about the silence after the Shoah and a story about what it takes to overcome it. And also a love story.
Agnieszka Lessmann: „Aga“. Roman, Gans Verlag, Berlin 2025. 978-3-946392-60-6
