Hera Lind about her new book
“He could be sweet as sugar and strike in the next moment”
“With your back to the wall” is the title of Hera Lind’s new book.
© Schneider-Press / Erwin Schneider
“She really had no chance of getting any help!” A victim of domestic violence becomes a defendant. Hera Lind tells her story.
Sara is a single mother of two toddlers – and ends up in court. The charges against her are: attempted murder of her father. In her new novel based on a true story, Hera Lind (64) tells Sara’s story, who as an adult again has to deal with her violent father. “I dealt intensively with Sara and her story. At first I rejected her. How can you answer violence with violence?”, Explains the writer in an interview with spot on news. But then she understood something …
Your new book “With your back to the wall” deals with domestic violence. What was it about the story that particularly moved you?
Hera Lind: Sara is not a victim type. She is a tough, strong, confident woman. I was shocked and moved that she saw no other option than to act with resistance and, in the end, was a defendant herself in court, and that as a single mother of two small children. And the way she told her story in court brought tears to my eyes.
Your novel is based on a true story. Sara is on trial because a plan for revenge against her abusive father has gotten out of hand. To what extent do you understand what she has planned?
Hera Lind: I dealt intensively with Sara and her story. At first I refused them. How can one answer violence with violence? Until I realized: she really had no chance of ever getting help! That’s when I knew I wanted to give victims of domestic violence a voice. That is even my responsibility and duty.
Was there anything in your research on domestic violence that surprised you?
Hera Lind: Yes, namely that everyone knew how Sara and even before that her mother had been abused by her father, and that no one, neither friends nor neighbors, nor the authorities or the police, intervened. Sara didn’t know what to do otherwise, to protect her own small children, than to hire someone herself. Something is wrong with the system!
The protagonist’s father’s new partner also experiences violence in the relationship and cannot evade the perpetrator. What means do perpetrators like him use to work?
Hera Lind: I spoke to my father’s girlfriend for a long time. With her, too, I initially had an inner rejection: How can a seasoned woman put up with that? But then she described how narcissistic and divided his personality was. He could be sweet and generous, lovable and funny, only to strike out of the blue the next moment.
Sara fell victim to her father’s outbursts of violence as a child. What has to change in society in order to better combat domestic violence?
Hera Lind: It cannot be accepted that “something really has to happen” before the authorities, the police and also the private sphere react. Look, listen, perceive vibrations, the victims’ cries for help are often completely covered for fear that the perpetrator might do something to them out of revenge.
How busy are you with the fates you report in your factual novels, even outside of writing?
Hera Lind: When I’m working on a story, I immerse myself fully in the topic, often for weeks and months. I literally crawl into the protagonist and always write in the first person. I feel their emotions myself mentally and physically, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write so authentically and credibly.
Your husband was there when you visited the protagonist of “With your back to the wall”. Is he often involved in your projects?
Hera Lind: Having worked as a hotel manager for 40 years, he has an incredible knowledge of human nature. He always patiently listens to my stories; Several materials are sent to me every day with the request to turn them into a factual novel. And he can feel exactly which story has what it takes to become a bestseller. I listen to him. He is my mentor. Often he even gets the title spontaneously, and that’s it!
What do you wish for the coming year?
Hera Lind: That people can and are allowed to move closer together, that personal exchange, warmth and closeness will be possible again.
How do you spend christmas
Hera Lind: As always with the whole family! The time together is precious to us, gifts are not so important. There are of course gifts for the little ones, but we adults give each other deep conversations, laughter, listening and appreciation.