Geschwistertreffen

The relationships between siblings appear to be both deep and complicated. Alongside parents, they are the earliest attachment figures and the first experience with other people. On the one hand, they are competitors for the parents' favour, but on the other hand they are also allies against them and friends for life. This is why our relationship with them shapes our view of the world as well as our later relationships. In his half-autobiographical, half-fictional novel ¿Geschwistertreffen. A never-ending relationship¿, Peter Lippermann explores precisely this phenomenon. The first-person narrator and his five siblings meet there in the mid-1990s when their parents sell their house and the old conflicts, jealousies and friendships resurface after twenty years. The early death of both parents awakens some traumatic feelings that have never been overcome. The book reveals the dynamics in sibling relationships through the subtle dialogues. It also provides a good insight into social change from the 1950s to the 1970s, the childhood and youth of the six siblings. The author takes a critical look at the dominance of the Catholic Church in everyday and family life in this village in Münsterland. This makes this novel equally interesting from a historical and a psychological point of view.