Ach, Papa: Wie mein Vater und ich wieder zueinanderfanden

For most of Mareike Nieberding's childhood and teenage years, her father was the one who picked her up — from parties at one in the morning, from her shift at the pub at seven. In Ach, Papa, the journalist proposes a different kind of journey: driving with him from their home in Steinfeld, Lower Saxony, south to Freiburg, the city where he once studied.

The trip becomes a frame for examining why so many father-daughter relationships change after adolescence, and what it takes to find your way back to each other once you've drifted. Nieberding writes about what she calls "Familienweh" — a mix of homesickness and the urge to get away — and the particular, hard-to-name sadness that sits between her and her father.