Catch of the Day Ep. 11: »What Truly Matters« by Nadine Schneider read by Alexandra Roesch

In this episode, translator Alexandra Roesch reads an English sample of Nadine Schneider’s »What Truly Matters«.

»What Truly Matters« is a sweeping mother-daughter story spanning four generations, a book about farewells, new beginnings, and the work of life.

It is late summer, and the grapes are ripe in the garden when Christina inherits her grandmother Anni's house. Here, in a small village near Nuremberg, she grew up with Anni: Anni, who fled Romania for Germany in the mid-1960s. Anni, who raised her child and grandchild all by herself, packing boxes for a mail-order giant to survive in a booming post-war economy. Who fought loneliness, poverty, and alienation with tenacity, strength, and a sense of duty. Was this the life she had dreamed of? Or did she miss out on life while living it?

Christina hesitantly says goodbye to Anni and her house. In the quiet warmth of the last days of summer, she sinks deeper and deeper into her memories, comes across surprising finds, and also drives to the now abandoned site of the Quelle mail order center. She has cancelled her planned vacation, and only occasional emails from work reach her. Gradually, she realizes what she really owes her grandmother: the freedom to let go and find the place where the good life is at home.

“This language achieves something: it tells a story that is breathless and yet full of tranquility.” - Zsuzsa Bánk

Nadine Schneider, born in Nuremberg in 1990, comes from a Romanian-German family. She studied musicology and German language and literature in Regensburg, Cremona, and Berlin. Her first novel, "Drei Kilometer", won several awards, including the Literature Prize of the City of Fulda. In 2021, she read at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. Her second novel, "Wohin ich immer gehe", was published in the same year. Nadine Schneider lives with her family near Nuremberg.

Head to our website to find a pdf of today’s sample here.

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Credits

Text originally published as “What Truly Matters” by Nadine Schneider

Translated and read by Alexandra Roesch

Copyright © S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main 2025

Photo of the author © Max Gödecke

Concept: Verena von Bassewitz, Martin Butz & Elisa Diallo

Production, Editing & Sound Design: Martin Butz

⁠Impressum

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