Dora Heldt (born Bärbel Schmidt on 10 November 1961) is a German writer. Several of her novels have reached the top of German bestselling lists, including her 2009 novel ''Tante Inge haut ab'', which got to second place.

Biography

Schmidt was born in 1961 on the island of

Sylt Sylt (; ; Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, with a distinctively shaped shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Fris ...

, the daughter of a German soldier. After training as a bookseller in

Bad Godesberg Bad Godesberg () is a borough () of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 to 1999, while Bonn was the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, most foreign embassies were in Bad Godesberg. Some buildings are still used as br ...

and working as a representative for the German publishing house

dtv Verlagsgesellschaft The dtv Verlagsgesellschaft is a German publishing house headquartered in Munich. It was founded in 1960 by eleven publishers as a common paperback publishing house named "Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag" (German paperback publishing house). Starti ...

, she drew attention to herself under the pseudonym Dora Heldt with her novels about Christine and her idiosyncratic father Heinz. Schmidt has been an active

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

player for many years. She lives with her family in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Writing

Schmidt has been writing under the pseudonym Dora Heldt, the name of her grandmother, starting with her first novel, ''Ausgeliebt'' (2006). The novel reached the bestseller list (35th place in January 2006), but it was only with her third book, ''Urlaub mit Papa'', in 2008, that she achieved her breakthrough as a bestselling author. A film adaptation of the book was made in the summer of 2009 for

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

, starring

Julia Stinshoff Julia Stinshoff (born 27 December 1974 in Bonn) is a German actress. Career Stinshoff started her English, philosophy and comparative religious studies but dropped out of college. From 1997 to 1999, she attended the Stage School of Hamburg as ...

as Christine,

Lambert Hamel Lambert Hamel (born 7 June 1940 in Ludwigshafen) is a German television and film actor. Training and first engagements After graduating from high school, Hamel initially took German studies, philosophy, and theatre studies from 1960 to 1962, at ...

as Heinz, and Steffen Groth as Johann. With her novel ''Kein Wort zu Papa'', she made it to number 1 on the bestseller list for the first time, in 2010. She reached the top of the list again with her subsequent books ''Bei Hitze ist es wenigstens nicht kalt'' (2011), ''Wind aus West mit starken Böen'' (2014), ''Wir sind die Guten'' (2017), and ''Drei Frauen am See'' (2018). In addition to writing adult novels, Schmidt has also published the

young adult novel Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...

''Siebenmeter für die Liebe'', in 2008.

Bibliography

Adult novels * ''Ausgeliebt'' (2006) – English title: ''Life After Forty'' * ''Unzertrennlich'' (2006) – English title: ''Inseparable'' * ''Urlaub mit Papa'' (2008) – English title: ''Chaperoned'' * ''Siebenmeter für die Liebe'' (2008) * ''Tante Inge haut ab'' (2009) – English title: ''Tidal Shift'' * ''Kein Wort zu Papa'' (2010) * ''Bei Hitze ist es wenigstens nicht kalt'' (2011) * ''Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Sie haben gewonnen!'' (2013) * ''Wind aus West mit starken Böen'' (2014) * ''Böse Leute'' (2016) * ''Wir sind die Guten'' (2017) * ''Drei Frauen am See'' (2018) * ''Mathilda oder Irgendwer stirbt immer'' (2020) Young adult novels * ''Siebenmeter für die Liebe'' (2008) Collections * ''Wiehnachten as jümmers...'' (2013) * ''Schnee ist auch nur hübschgemachtes Wasser: Wintergeschichten'' (2017) * ''Sommer. Jetzt! Sonnige Geschichten'' (2018)

Film adaptations

* ' (2009) * ''Aunt Inge Beats Loose'' (2011) * ''Don't Tell Dad'' (2012) * ''When It's Hot, at Least It's Not Cold'' (2012) * ''Out of Love'' (2013) * ''Inseparable'' (2014) * ''Congratulations! You're a Winner!'' (2014) * ''A Westerly Wind with Sudden Squalls'' (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heldt, Dora 1961 births Living people People from Nordfriesland People from Sylt 21st-century German novelists Writers from Schleswig-Holstein German women novelists 21st-century German women writers