Literature Can Change Lives

In ancient Egypt, above Pharaoh Ramses II's library stood the inscription "The House for Healing of the Soul" - or more plainly: The Soul's Pharmacy.

Author Rachel Röst explores what this concept encompasses. She discusses international projects that use literature as medicine, her own relationship with literature and writing, and the field of "Narrative Medicine" in medical education.

Röst has experienced firsthand how transformative literature can be. After a youth marked by family estrangement, petty crime, and drug use, she became pregnant at 19 and decided to turn her life around for her son's sake. She studied literature and rediscovered the childhood joy of writing.

In 2012, she founded the organization "Read for Life", which collects books and donates them to children's homes, secure institutions, and youth hostels - precisely the places where she herself lacked access to the world of books.