They haven’t seen each other for more than sixty years, but one day Luisa bumps into HIM on the street: Heinrich was once the love of her life, her childhood sweetheart, but they fell out of touch. They arrange to meet again, and this rendezvous is followed by many more … As they talk, Luisa and Heinrich look back on their short-lived romance and on the decades they have spent apart. Gradually they grow closer again, travelling in their conversations through the highs and lows of their separate lives. Is a new love story developing, in the magic of the present? Because: ‘I think we’re both at an age now when it’s best not to put things off.’

„Trotzdem“ ist nicht nur der Titel eines Liedes von Erika Pluhar, es ist vor allem das Lebensmotto der vielseitig begabten Autorin, Sängerin und Schauspielerin. Sie hat sich von Verlust und Leid niemals besiegen lassen, hat sich stets wieder aufgerichtet und ist ihren Weg weitergegangen. Dieses Buch erzählt in Bild und Wort von den wichtigsten Stationen ihres Lebens. Es versammelt Texte von Erika Pluhar, unbekannte Fotografien aus ihrem Privatarchiv und die schönsten Bilder ihrer Glanzrollen in Theater und Film wie die Regine in der legendären Inszenierung von Musils „Die Schwärmer“, die Elena Nikolaevna in Gorkis „Kinder der Sonne“ am Wiener Burgtheater oder die Madeleine Forestier in der berühmten Verfilmung von „Bel Ami“ (1967).

In writing that is frank and unvarnished, Erika Pluhar describes her sister’s traumatic experiences as a child during wartime and a post-war teen, experiences that forced her to take on responsibilities much too early, to adapt and make herself fit in. Gitti’s childhood and youth is shaped by tremendous upheaval: after living in Brazil for the first years of her life, she moves to Munich, where her father embarks on a career in the Nazi party, ultimately taking the family to occupied Poland. The war increasingly comes to dominate everyday life, and Gitti must face up to the challenges of adulthood … ‘better to hide the sadness within and make a secret of it. Yes, in a secret room that belongs only to me and remains invisible to everybody else, she thought.’

Fifty-one-year-old Hedwig Pflüger returns to the Vienna apartment hat she has inherited from her grandmother. She has kept away from the city and the old woman she grew up with for several decades. Now she faces a turning point in her life. The Viennese apartment is full of memories and in the stillness of the old building Hedwig starts to write about the past. The resulting account tells of a woman who struggled to meet the standardised requirements of her time; a woman who despite all her attempts kept sliding back into isolation and loneliness. But now, as she looks back and puts pen to paper, Hedwig learns to accept the present and open herself up to new challenges.