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Stefanie de Velasco
Stefanie de Velasco is a German author. Her novel Tiger Milk explores the lives of two teenage girls in Berlin. She writes fiction for young adults and adults.
Kein Teil der Welt
Synopsis
Set in an East German village shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, "Kein Teil der Welt" follows the young Esther, whose family relocates to help rebuild a Kingdom Hall in her father's former homeland. While her parents work as special pioneers for the Watchtower Society, going door-to-door in the post-reunification East, Esther is torn from her previous life and painfully misses her friend Sulamith.
Stefanie de Velasco structures the novel around alternating chapters labeled "Genesis" and "Exodus," tracing Esther's life with Sulamith in one thread and a later period in which she is suddenly absent in the other. The novel draws on de Velasco's own upbringing within the Jehovah's Witnesses community, which she left as a teenager, and portrays the emancipation of a young woman from a closed religious world with unusual authenticity.
Genres
Characters
Queen EstherProtagonist
Growing up in a Jehovah's Witnesses community in post-reunification East Germany.
SulamithSupporting
Esther's close friend.
Frequently asked questions
Is this book based on the author's own life?
The author has spoken about her personal background as a former member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, drawing on her own experiences of going from door to door to depict the coldness and monotony of that life.
Was this book nominated for any literary awards?
The novel received a nomination for the German Children's Literature Prize in the youth book category in 2020.