With the book “Ohne dich” the Dutch author Erna Sassen has created a book for young people that is special on several levels. Even the artistic cover, which shows a drawing of a girl with a goat, and the elaborate, colored cut decorations are out of the ordinary for young people’s books. As soon as you start reading, the minimalist language (brilliantly translated into German by Rolf Erdorf), which throughout the story reads like an outcry from the fifteen-year-old first-person narrator Joshua, immediately pulls you in. It is accompanied by artistic sketches by Martijn van der Linden (whose name unfortunately can only be found in the masthead), which are part of the story and a key to understanding the development of the hero and his friends.
Joshua is an outsider in his family, but also at school and can express himself better with his drawings than with words. After his parents separated and his older siblings moved out, all three high-flyers, he stayed with his father. But the most important person for him is Zivan, his girlfriend. After fleeing Iraq, she and her Kurdish parents and brother live with her aunt Shanya, who is married to an Englishman and has freed herself from strict Muslim customs. Which unfortunately does not apply to Zivan’s parents. When Zivan is fifteen years old, they return to their homeland without any announcement or farewell. Zivan’s father had decided to marry her to a cousin without her consent. She gets a respite when Aunt Shanya gets cancer and her sister comes back with Zivan to take care of her. But the aunt’s attempt to save Zivan from his father by fleeing to various women’s shelters fails. “It’s not a good life for Zivan either. No one can keep up with being on the run all the time,” Aunt Shanya tries to explain Zivan’s decision to submit to her father. “I don’t want to be a bad girl anymore,” says Zivan as he says goodbye to Joshua.
This insight into the parallel world of strictly believing Muslim families is shocking, because it is still the fathers who make the decisions about their daughters. When asked by Aunt Shanya how he would react if Zivan – like her – married an Englishman, Zivan’s father replies: “Then I have to kill her!”
But there is another parallel world that Erna Sassen shows her young readers, because Joshua has to switch from secondary school to secondary school because of poor performance, where the law of the strongest prevails and gentle Joshua has no chance. But behind the macho facade of the two feared bullies in his class are sensitive boys from bad backgrounds who help each other and change their behavior towards Joshua when they take away his sketchbook. Astonished, they recognize his great talent, call him “Rembrandt” from now on and have tattoos made according to his designs. (from 14 years)