‘Beside Yourself’
Suhrkamp, September 2017
Shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2017
From the very beginning, it has always been the two of them: the twins Alissa and Anton. In the one-bedroom flat in Moscow in the post-Soviet years, they cling to each other’s curls when their parents fight. Later, in provincial West Germany, they roam the hallways of the asylum centre. And, later still, Anton disappears without a trace. At some point, a postcard arrives from Istanbul – with nothing written on it and no return address. Alissa sets out on a quest – for her missing brother, but above all for a feeling of belonging that goes beyond fatherland, mother tongue or gender.
Sasha Marianna Salzmann was born in Volgograd in 1985 and grew up in Moscow. In 1995, she emigrated with her family to Germany, studied Literature, Theatre and Media at the University of Hildesheim, and Creative Writing for the Stage at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 2013, Salzmann has been an in-house writer for the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin. During her stay in Istanbul as fellow of the Tarabya Cultural Academy 2012/13, Salzmann began writing her debut novel Beside Yourself, which she completed in the following years and during her regular stays in Turkey.