LesArt.Festival: Annett Gröschner und André Kubiczek - DDR Post-DDR

In the organizer's words:

An evening about history and stories that go in search of clues. The authors Annett Gröschner and André Kubiczek read from their novels "Schwebende Lasten" and "Nostalgia" - and talk to literary scholar Corinna Schlicht about keywords and keywording. They ask what the GDR is and what constitutes the post-GDR, who owns history, who writes, who speaks, how literary work on collective memory takes place. And they ask what constitutes writing in an after about the before, and what continuing to write means.

"Schwebende Lasten" tells the story of the life of flower arranger and crane driver Hanna Krause, who has lived through two revolutions, two dictatorships, an uprising, two world wars and two defeats, two democracies, the Kaiser and other leaders. She experienced good and bad times, gave birth to six children and was unable to bury two of them, which affected her to the end of her life.

"Nostalgia" is perhaps André Kubiczek's most personal book. It is about his relationship with his mother, who tried to find a home in a foreign country. In the process, a somewhat different picture of life in the GDR emerges - from the perspective of a binational family trying to get by in everyday life. A novel that tells of familiarity, foreignness and love across cultures and prejudices with empathy and warmth.

Annett Gröschner, born in Magdeburg in 1964, has lived as a writer in Berlin since 1983. She is best known for her novels "Moskauer Eis" (2000) and "Walpurgistag" (2011). Most recently, her bestseller "Drei ostdeutsche Frauen betrinken sich und gründen den idealen Staat" (2024), co-written with Peggy Mädler and Wenke Seemann, was published by Hanser. Annett Gröschner has received numerous awards, most recently the Grand Art Prize Berlin (Fontane Prize), the Klopstock Prize and the Mainz City Writer Literature Prize from ZDF, 3sat and the state capital Mainz.

André Kubiczek, born in 1969, lives in Berlin. His highly acclaimed novel "Junge Talente" was published in 2002 and "Die Guten und die Bösen" in 2003. André Kubiczek was awarded the Candide Prize in 2007. "Sketch of a Summer" (2016) was shortlisted for the German Book Prize. His most recent publications are "Komm in den totgesagten Park und schau" (2018), "Straße der Jugend" (2020) and "Der perfekte Kuss" (2022). "Nostalgia" is his latest novel.

Price information:

Free admission! Registration required (information will follow on the website)