White Spots

• A literary examination of the Eurocentric gaze
• How to write about the great-grandmother who covered up the traces of her origins? How far do the facts go, how far does the imagination go?

English sample translation available

On the footsteps of German colonialism right into one's own family history

A young woman embarks on a journey to Togo, armed with a recorder and a questionable mission. Once there, she steps into the world of individuals who float between different continents: a dressmaker who  left Germany before she was deported, a volunteer wrestling with his duties, and a librarian who draws her attention to the white people who populate the country like ghosts.

As she grows further embroiled in these lives, she becomes increasingly skeptical of the narratives populating the German library in Sokodé. She starts questioning the gaps not just in these stories, but also those in her own family history. Her uncle struck gold in Nigeria, while her great-great-grandfather only brought one of his three children from Panama to Hamburg. This leaves her pondering about her great-great-grandmother’s identity.

Years later, back in her homeland Germany, she musters the courage to delve into her history. However, her quest is tainted by persisting doubts: Who has the right to tell whose story? And how should it be told?

"Rarely does someone have the gift of developing a language that is saturated with so much knowledge and so much empathy. [...] Lene Albrecht's every sentence is dazzlingly precise." - NDR Kultur, Lisa Kreißler

"Every passage, every paragraph, every linguistic image seems so accurate, so precise, so valid, as if the position and role in the novel had been meticulously thought through." - tip Berlin, Erik Heier

"[...] an important, cleverly composed book -- Nadine Kreuzahler - RBB24 [...] an important, cleverly composed book"  - Nadine Kreuzahler, RBB24

"Lene Albrecht has chosen her narrative technique wisely" - Die Presse, Johanna Öttl