Catch of the Day Ep. 9: »I'd Like to Go Back in Time« by Judith Hermann read by Katy Derbyshire

In this episode, translator Katy Derbyshire reads her English sample of Judith Hermann’s »I'd Like to Go Back in Time«.

To which places have the memories retreated?

Judith Hermann follows the traces of her grandfather, who was stationed in Radom, Poland, during the war. She thinks about what effect the little knowledge and the speechlessness in the family had - and what influence it also had on her writing. From Poland, she travels to her sister in Naples and pursues remembering and forgetting in subsequent generations. In intermediate and undertones, Judith Hermann tracks down the voids and damages of every life, but brings us a little closer to the beauty hidden therein with her magical and magnetic stories.

Praise for Judith Hermann:

“Judith Hermann's books are unflinching explorations of human conditions." — Neue Zürcher Zeitung on Home

“A master storyteller.” — The Independent, London on Summerhouse, Later

“In the ‘Nobel Prize League’” — Frankfurter Rundschau on We'd Have Told Each Other Everything

Judith Hermann was born in Berlin in 1970. Her debut story collection Summerhouse, Later (1998) was extremely well received. It was then followed in 2003 by the story collection Nothing But Ghosts, and several of the stories contained in the latter were adapted for film in 2007. In 2009, she published Alice, five short stories that received international acclaim. Her first novel, Where Love Beginns, came out in 2014. It was followed in 2016 by the short story collection Lettipark, which was awarded the Danish Blixen Prize for Short Stories. Hermann has received numerous awards for her work, including the Kleist Prize and the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize. Her novel Home was published in spring 2021. It was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize and received the Bremen Literature Prize in 2022. Most recently, S. Fischer published We'd Have Told Each Other Everything, based on the Frankfurt poetry lectures given by Judith Hermann in spring 2022. The author received the Wilhelm Raabe Literature Prize for this work. Judith Hermann lives and writes in Berlin.

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

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Credits

Text originally published as “Ich möchte zurückgehen in der Zeit” by Judith Hermann

Translated and read by Katy Derbyshire

Copyright © S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main 2026

Photo of the author © Andreas Reiberg

Concept: Verena von Bassewitz, Martin Butz & Elisa Diallo

Production, Editing & Sound Design: Martin Butz

⁠Impressum

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