SZ Magazine: “Every person sooner or later invents a story that they believe is their life,” wrote Max Frisch in his novel My name be Gantenbein. When did you start making up a story that you consider to be your life?
Monika Helfer: I would say at twelve. My sister and I were incredible bookworms, our father was a book junkie. He bought books like crazy even though we had no money. No children’s shoes, but books. He didn’t want people to touch his books, they were so noble. So my sister and I grabbed a new batch from the union library every week, we really devoured books. And then I said to my sister: Just be careful, one day my name will be on the back of the book. Then she said, you’re crazy. And then I started to really imagine it. It was almost something compulsory.
Monika Helfer: The writer in an interview about memory and inspiration
