Die Donau als Lebensader in Harald Grills Reisebuch <i>Hinter drei Sonnenaufgängen. Balkanstreifzüge durch Rumänien und Bulgarien bis Odessa</i> (2018)

Abstract Harald Grill is a German author from Eastern Bavaria who predominantly writes poetry and travel books, as well as travel features for radio and television. He became known due to his project of a ‘returning home twice’, when he walked back on foot to his hometown of Regensburg, on the river Danube, two times, in 2000 starting from the North Cape, and in 2001 starting from Sicily. In 2015, he travelled to Southeastern Europe and wrote a book based upon the experiences and reflections during this voyage. In the following, it shall be demonstrated how the river Danube, to which Grill since his childhood has had close biographical ties, structures the text of this travel book and moreover serves as a medium of self-reflection and therapeutic remedy following the author’s loss of his mother.