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My Whole Life, Oil on Canvas, Untitled

The art of letting go 

Güstrow, May 1945: 14-year-old Marlen is hiding from the approaching Russian soldiers. As she escapes, she discovers an old, damaged painting. Wilma, a well-known artist, takes in the young orphan and trains her to be her assistant. And the old painting will become Marlen’s artistic workbook and diary.

Berlin, 2023: 34-year old Hannah’s life could be quite good, if it wasn’t for her best friend suddenly moving out. Plus, if Hannah’s father hadn’t suddenly turned up, after many years’ absence ... And what does all of this have to do with the precious painting that once belonged to Hannah’s great-grandmother?

  • After her very successful SPIEGEL bestsellers ‘Young Woman, Standing by the Window, Evening Light, Blue Dress’ and ‘It’s Always so Uncannily Quiet at Your Place’, Alena Schröder presents her third sweeping generational family saga
  • Total print-run of Alena Schröder's novels: over 480,000 copies
Rights sold: Slovenia (Mladinska Knjiga)
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Alena Schröder

Alena Schröder is a freelance journalist and author, living in Berlin. She studied History, Political Science and Latin American Studies. Schröder works as a freelance journalist and co-hosts a podcast on creative and journalistic writing.

352 pages, ISBN: 978-3-423-28528-5
First published 2026