Cristina Rivera Garza

In the organizer's words:

Cristina Rivera Garza presents her book "Liliana's imperishable summer"

Liliana Rivera Garza, born in 1970, was a fun-loving and clever young woman, a swimmer and the author of countless letters, diary entries and notes: "Basically, Liliana was the true writer of our family." She was only 20 years old. Murdered by her ex-boyfriend in July 1990, a femicide.

Almost 30 years later, her older sister Cristina Rivera Garza, a multi-award-winning author and historian living in the USA, returns to Azcapotzalco in the north-west of Mexico City and digs through the archives, speaks to the authorities and courts to finally get some clarity: What happened back then? Why was the perpetrator never convicted? The memoir "Liliana's Imperishable Summer" (Klett-Cotta; translation: Johanna Schwering), which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2024, is a relentless search for traces of a life that ended far too soon. It is a tough book because it shows us how fragile and exposed women from all walks of life and all nations still are, whether in Mexico or, as in July 2025, in Barmbek-Nord. Nevertheless, or perhaps precisely because of this, this harrowing, militant book is a highly literary read in its diversity of voices, from which the picture of a patriarchal society that systematically despises the feminine slowly emerges.

Moderation: Constanze Álvarez
German reading: Nina Petri

Price information:

€ 16,-/12,-/6,- Livestream