Kuegler, Sabine 1972–

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Kuegler, Sabine 1972–

PERSONAL:

Born December 25, 1972, in Patan, Nepal; daughter of Klaus Peter (a linguist and missionary) and Doris (a linguist and missionary) Kuegler; raised in West Papua, Indonesia; married and divorced twice; partner of Klaus Kluge; children: Sophia, Lawrence, Julian, Vanessa. Education: Attended boarding school in Switzerland.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Munich, Germany.

CAREER:

Owner of a media production company and publishing house in Munich, Germany. Has also worked for a hotel chain.

WRITINGS:

Dschungelkind, Droemer (Munich, Germany), 2005, translation published as Jungle Child, Virago Press (London, England), 2005, published as Child of the Jungle: The True Story of a Girl Caught between Two Worlds, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sabine Kuegler is the author of Child of the Jungle: The True Story of a Girl Caught between Two Worlds, "a unique, intercultural coming-of[-]age tale," observed Booklist contributor Deborah Donovan. In 1980, seven-year-old Kuegler, the daughter of German linguists and Christian missionaries, accompanied her family to a remote village in West Papua, Indonesia, where they lived with the primitive Fayu tribe. "Nothing could have prepared us for life in the Lost Valley," Kuegler told Katy Regan in Marie Claire. "We had only a simple wooden house with no running water or electricity. We had to radio in to the base every morning to let them know we were OK. The Fayu were cannibals, and even though we never witnessed this ourselves, there was always the risk that they might eat us." The Fayu proved most hospitable, however, and Kuegler quickly adjusted to life in the jungle, learning to speak the Fayu language, dining on roast bats, and hunting with a bow and arrow.

At age seventeen, Kuegler was sent to a Swiss boarding school to learn Western ways, but she experienced severe culture shock. She married young after becoming pregnant, sank into depression, and attempted suicide. According to Library Journal contributor Lisa Klopfer, "Kuegler ends her book in despair of ever adjusting fully to the Western world." "A lot of me refuses to adapt to life here," the author told Elizabeth Grice in the London Telegraph. "I have the constant feeling that I am not where I should be." She added, "I am unhappy, not with my life, but with the situation I am in—not being able to reach the point of saying I am home."

Child of the Jungle received generally strong reviews. A critic in Publishers Weekly stated that readers "will find this account of a most unusual childhood engrossing," and in BookPage, Megan Brenn-White noted that Kuegler's sense of displacement "seems a completely appropriate reaction to such a huge transition and an honest ending to a story that is incredible and very real at the same time."