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Authors & Books
Sophie Heeger
Sophie Heeger was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1958. She studied medicine at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University and completed training periods in psychiatry, surgery and internal medicine. This was followed by a doctorate on a gynecological topic. During the subsequent specialist training as an occupational physician, she cared for the Frankfurt Police Headquarters, various courts, as well as correctional facilities, among others. She is married, has three children and lives in Mainz. She works as a general practitioner in her own practice near Mainz.
Sophie Heeger began writing literature in 2009, and in 2012 her debut novel, »Mephistos Erben« (Mephisto's Heirs), was published by S. Fischer Verlag, followed by two more novels to date by her colleagues at Ullstein.
Cactus and Canary (Kaktus und Kanarienvogel)
Novel
- eBook
978-3-86638-245-9
Is it ethically acceptable to use the perceptual shift of a wounded soul to construct a narrative world?
Yes, absolutely – if it is masterfully done narratively, if it shows us more than superficial phenomena, if it allows the hidden and split-off world to appear behind the visible, accessible world.
This is achieved by author Sophie Heeger, who has become known for her crime novels (and they are more novels than crime stories) published by S. Fischer and Ullstein Verlag. And she does so with the necessary care and caution – towards her character Anna and towards us as readers.
As such, we find ourselves in a dreamlike world in which a woman seems preoccupied with nothing but organizing a trip that she herself calls an »escape«. At first, we are not particularly confused as we follow her to Venice, Amsterdam, and Paris, where she acquires a cactus and a canary in its cage from wondrous encounters. Her clear mission is to hand both of them over to semi-strangers at her enticing destinations.
Anna had never thought about running away before. But that morning, the thought suddenly popped into her head. It appeared out of nowhere, just as Anna picked up a towel to throw it in the laundry basket. However, the idea of running away seemed strange to Anna, even dangerous, so she quickly pushed it aside. She didn't like strange or dangerous things. But the thought was persistent. It came back and didn't intend to be shaken off. Finally, Anna went into the kitchen to wash the breakfast dishes. She secretly hoped to outwit the thought by changing the room, the activity, and the object of her attention. The attempt failed. The thought remained persistent and made preparations to settle in with her permanently. So Anna had no choice but to deal with it. Escape! A quick departure! Leave the apartment or even the city? And to what end?
However, anxiety and terror soon intrude into the travelers' reality. The traveling woman senses shifting, unstable ground beneath her feet and becomes the victim of increasingly violent characters.
But then she heard heavy footsteps. Anna pressed her ear against the door. Slowly, without haste, the footsteps came down the hallway and approached her door. Then suddenly there was silence. Anna held her breath and looked at the birdcage she had placed next to her. The canary pressed its head against the bars and remained in that position, not a peep coming from its throat.
The footsteps receded! Anna hardly dared to breathe. But suddenly the footsteps turned around in the hallway and came back. Anna left her place by the door and pushed herself behind the platform with the potato sacks. Through the hatch, she heard a squeaking bicycle brake, the honking of a car, and angry cursing. Then it was quiet again. Even in the hallway outside the door. Anna didn't move.
Suddenly, the cellar door burst open under a kick and splintered wood flew into the storeroom. Instinctively, Anna ducked deeper behind the sacks, even though she knew it would be futile.
»The Eiffel Tower had more atmosphere!« He walked slowly to Anna's hiding place, stopped, and pulled her up to her feet. His hand closed around her throat.
What begins as a fairy-tale narrative from Anna’s perspective and is almost enchanting, gradually breaks down to finally give way to a clear view of the dissociative perception of a severely traumatized person.
Literature can hardly achieve more than to muster the subtlety necessary to smooth over, no, even cushion the laborious transitions between such harshly divided worlds.
