Cologne author Susanne Abel: A novel about war, children's home and hope

Cologne author Susanne Abel: A novel about war, children's home and hope

Köln-Poll, Deutschland - In the Cologne literary scene, something is happening - and quite considerably! Susanne Abel has completed her new novel, which will be released in August 2025. Under the title "You have to hold my hand, No.4" unfolds a touching story about two children in a after -war children's home. The girl, a oral orphan, and the boy who is on the run and has lost his memory, become important reference points for each other and remain connected for a lifetime. An important setting is Cologne-Poll, which gives the city and its history a special role in Abel's story, as INEUEDSTADT.de reports.

Abel, who lives in the southern part of the city and brings deep into the history of Cologne from there, has already published two bestseller novels: "Stay Away from Gretchen: an impossible love" and "What I never said: Gretchen's fate family". These works deal with urgent topics such as flight, expulsion, the Second World War and the effects of Nazi crimes on the following generations. In the podcast with Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger she talks about the inheritance of the trauma that she took over from her mother and about what she learned from the Cologne past.

young author with a strong voice

Susanne Abel is a Cologne author who started writing late. Despite her relatively short writing experience, her debut novel "Stay Away from Gretchen" has had a place on the bestseller lists to this day. Heavy topics are dealt with in her books, and she finds a way to bring the stories to light that often remained hidden in the shadow of the past.

A special focus in her stories focuses on transgenerational traumatization, which is passed on to future generations through events such as flight and displacement over the years. This topic also has connections to an article to ÄrzteBlatt can often be passed on unconsciously and can lead to an atmosphere of trauma and guilt.

Abel's stories about the search for lost children and address what flight and displacement do with people. In this way, even in the new novel, the influence of the past is illustrated on the present - an aspect that has lost nothing in the current society.

Cologne identity and personal ties

For Susanne Abel, Cologne is not only a setting in her novels, but also a place where she is rooted. The view of the Cologne cathedral from the southern bridge is one of her favorite places. Here you can feel the attitude to life of the southern part of the city, which she describes as a pleasant neighborhood in which people deal with each other in a friendly manner and you know each other. As a filmmaker, she also knows the Rheinauhafen very well, which gives her further understanding of the city and its history.

With her new novel, Abel produces a moving story that not only wants to entertain, but also wants to stimulate thought. The history of flight, displacement and the inseparable connection between two children will be spell on many readers: