Under a Different Sky
A meditation on homesickness and the eternal longing
From a young age, philosopher and writer Joke H. Hermsen has wrestled with the longing to be elsewhere – a kind of ‘farsickness’, from the German 'fernweh', which has gone paired with never quite feeling at home. When, during the pandemic, the feeling rises to a crescendo in her own house, she packs her bags. But everywhere she goes – from France to the Netherlands to Germany – memories wash over her.
As Hermsen tries to make sense of her unrest, she reaches for the thinkers and poets who have most influenced her: Hannah Arendt, Maya Angelou, Rainer Maria Rilke, Lou Salomé, bell hooks, Friedrich Hölderlin, Simone Weil and Ingeborg Bachmann. Being at home, she discovers, also means being at home in time. In the end, she must face a memory of sexual assault as a teenager – the moment she suddenly felt she had no one to speak to in her family home.
For Hermsen, heimwee, closest to the English word ‘homesickness’, is not just about having a home or not, it’s equally about how, in the development of your identity, you can be encouraged or confined by feelings of not belonging. This emotion also comprises a desire for the past and a coming to terms with memories. It can be triggered by the passage of time, and thus assail you anywhere.
Hermsen mixes these insights with reflections on Europe’s political present – the pandemic as well as the climate and refugee crisis – readily acknowledging that it’s a privilege to only feel homeless on an existential level, while enjoying a house, passport and chance at a secure future.
A philosophical and personal exploration of our alternate longings for the familiar and the unknown
On finding a home in literature, memory and political solidarity
The author sold more than 150,000 copies of her work in the Netherlands
Year of publication
2023
Page count
320
Publisher
Prometheus
Rights
Nikki Verkerk
foreignrights@pbo.nl
Sample translation available
Hermsen draws the reader into her emotional world with many striking descriptions. They make the theoretical reflections relevant, of personal interest even.
De Standaard
Hermsen links her reflections on homesickness to interludes on the climate, migration and the fates of refugees. When talking about political displacement, the question of “how to be at home in the world” suddenly becomes a very different one.
De Groene Amsterdammer
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