How does the salt get into the sea?

It tells the story of a young woman, somewhere in the Austrian province, who learns one thing above all from a young age: to deny herself in order to conform to the norms and expectations of a repressive bourgeois society. An early marriage does not lead to liberation but only intensifies the feeling of being controlled by others. "I am not myself," says the nameless first-person narrator, "I am Rolf's wife." This is followed by an affair, depression, and divorce.

Brigitte Schwaiger, born in 1949 in Freistadt, was the rising star of Austrian literature. With her debut novel, the then 28-year-old from Upper Austria achieved sensational success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies in the German-speaking world alone.

Celebrated as a literary prodigy, she later ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Brigitte Schwaiger passed away in July 2010 in Vienna. Her novel "Wie kommt das Salz ins Meer" has lost none of its relevance even over 30 years later.