WHAT SHE SAW – A TRUE STORY
A Prophecy, a Lost Love, and a Journey into the Unknown
Volume 1 of the "STATIONS" series
A fortune teller takes his hand. What she sees in it will haunt him for years to come. At the time, Christoph dismisses her prophecy as mumbo-jumbo. Later, he will remember every single word.
In early 1985, Christoph travels alone through Asia. After Sri Lanka and several weeks on Koh Samui, he returns to Bangkok. There, he meets Suzanne.
A seemingly insignificant question about sugar leads to an encounter for which, just a few months later, Christoph is prepared to leave everything familiar behind and fly to the other side of the world.
During a week together on Koh Samet, Suzanne examines his palm. His lifeline is broken, but a little further along, a new one begins. She speaks of a major change in his life. Christoph takes it all rather calmly.
Then he flies to Australia. But the woman he has fallen in love with is not the only thing waiting for him there.
In a small chapel, a fortune teller takes his hand. As she looks into his palm, her entire arm suddenly begins to tremble. She speaks of dark forces and sinister demons. Of a terrible ordeal awaiting him in a distant place. And she warns him that only God can save his soul.
Christoph has little time for such mumbo-jumbo. Not yet. Shortly afterwards, Suzanne leaves him.
What follows is a wild journey across Australia, with no real plan and often barely any money. Christoph hitchhikes across the country, frequently sleeps outdoors, struggles through the scorching heat of the Australian desert and works on a remote sheep farm, where the family apparently sees him not only as a farmhand but also as the future father of Molly’s children. Time and again, he finds himself in situations he can barely escape. Eventually, his journey takes him to Cape Tribulation, deep in the tropical rainforest, where a flirtation with a young woman from Berlin nearly costs him his life.
And as Christoph travels on, the fortune teller’s words keep returning to his mind.
What did that woman really see?
WHAT SHE SAW tells a true story of love, freedom and those decisions whose consequences sometimes only become clear many years later.
What begins as a journey to a woman turns into an adventure full of unexpected encounters, absurd situations and twists that hardly anyone could make up.
A great love he loses after an ominous prophecy.
In the middle of the Australian desert, a car transporter driver in a Hawaiian shirt. And his three ironclad rules. Nights spent sleeping in a BMW on the car transporter. An Indian driver who picks him up in his minivan and treats him to curry. A Bavarian beer festival. A lift with a potential serial killer and two car thieves who turn out to be surprisingly charming travelling companions.
Not exactly what you would expect from an ordinary holiday in Australia.
In between are endless highways, lonely hours by the roadside, dives into the fascinating underwater world of the Great Barrier Reef and encounters that will stay with Christoph for a long time.
With self-irony, dry humour and a generous helping of adventurous spirit, Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger tells of a time when freedom meant, above all, not knowing where you would sleep the next day.
Or how you would get yourself out of a situation.
WHAT SHE SAW is an adventure novel with autobiographical roots and the first volume in the STATIONS series. Each volume tells a self-contained story and can be read independently of the others.
But the story that begins with a seemingly harmless question about sugar is far from over.
Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger writes from lived experience – from setbacks, detours, new beginnings and encounters that need no invention. His stories take shape wherever real life leaves its mark.
If you haven’t read any of the books in the STATIONS series yet, you can start with any of the following titles. Each volume tells a self-contained story, but read in order, they reveal a much bigger story together.
Volume 1: WHAT SHE SAW – A TRUE STORY
Volume 2: THE MAN WITH THE CRUTCH
Volume 3: TRANSIT – THE LAST DAYS OF FREEDOM
Volume 4: DEPARTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN
VOLUME 5: IN THE TIGER CAGE – SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN THE BASEMENT OF RUMMELSBURG
Volume 6: FRIDAY THE 13TH (IN PROGRESS)