Judith Merchant: Aprikosenkind - Thriller mit Eventkonzept

Nathalie has fulfilled her biggest dream: She lives in a house in the countryside with her husband Gabriel and their daughter Ruby. Ruby, in particular—the family’s long-awaited child—is the center of their lives. The six-year-old is a quiet and reserved girl who is developing more slowly than other children. Nathalie does everything she can to give her daughter the best possible support and hopes that this fresh start in the countryside will do her good. But soon, this idyll is overshadowed by unsettling events. Time and again, Nathalie discovers windows and doors left open, with no idea how they were opened. The people around her are also behaving increasingly strangely. While her husband tries to find rational explanations and reassure her, Nathalie’s growing sense that something is wrong intensifies. When Ruby one day paints a picture that raises questions and reawakens long-suppressed fears, Nathalie begins to search for answers. In the process, she uncovers a truth that shatters her previous life and her understanding of her family. The closer she gets to the truth, the more she must ask herself what lies behind the strange occurrences—and what price she is willing to pay to protect her happiness and her family.

The novel combines psychological suspense with an atmospherically rich family story and explores motherhood, perception, secrets, and the limits of what we would do for the people we love.

Judith Merchant always reads only the first scene from *The Apricot Child* the same way. After that, the audience gets to vote on how the story continues. Which character will be followed, which door opened, which clues trusted? The audience is an active part of the reading. What makes it special: Not all of these scenes are in the book, and Judith Merchant writes new passages on the spot. This makes every reading an exclusive and one-of-a-kind experience. It heightens the anticipation—both for the book and for the discussions that follow the event.

Judith Merchantis a literary scholar and taught creative writing at the University of Bonn for ten years. Today, she works as a lecturer and host for everything related to books and leads five book clubs. She has twice been awarded the Friedrich Glauser Prize for her short stories. Following the publication of her Rhine crime series, the thriller “ATME!” was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in 2019 and became a bestseller. “SCHWEIG!” followed in 2021.