Hello Grandpa—Love Miriam

Hello Grandpa—Love Miriam

A Story in E-Mails

A story in e-mails—between Mirjam and her somewhat wise grandpa. An intimate story of great closeness and attention. In his incomparable tone, both clear and light, Härtling describes a friendship between the grandfather and his grand-daughter that doesn’t simply end with death.

Mirjam is 13 and tells her 80-year-old grandfather about false (Facebook) friends and about the resulting move to a new school. She warns him not to interfere in her affairs. Grandpa replies—sometimes not at once—how difficult it is to remember things and describes how hard it was for him back then, after the war, to find the right friends. He encourages and advises her on how to deal with fears and with one’s parents, and assures her that the guest bed will always be ready for her should she need it. Mirjam learns from him what it is like when one becomes unsteady and has the feeling that everything one does is perhaps for the last time. One day Grandpa doesn’t write back to Mirjam. Never again. But Mrjam continues to write: “Hello Grandpa....”


• Gift book for grandparents and their grandchildren
• About the comforting power of the imagination
• 80th birthday of Peter Haertling on Nov. 13, 2013