Lesung mit Lina Schwenk: 'Blinde Geister'

In the organizer's words:

We are looking forward to welcoming Lina Schwenk, who will be presenting her novel 'Blinde Geister'. In her debut, which has also been nominated for the Harbour Front Debut Prize, she tells a touching family story set against the backdrop of contemporary German history.

Olivia, the daughter of Rita and Karl, has always been aware of the adults' fear of another war, even though peace has prevailed in Germany for years. Karl persistently checks the pantry for supplies, and time and again the family seeks refuge together in the cellar when their father fears the Russians will invade. For Olivia and her sister Martha, it's a game to which they quietly submit, also because they have long known that their parents don't have the words to explain and that the more they ask, the louder the silence becomes. "Soon I'll be dead," Olivia also thinks, as her parents' anxiety gradually becomes her own. In her first apartment of her own, Olivia misses the cellar - the small shelter of her childhood, which at least meant one thing: family time. She only recognizes the long cracks that extend from her parents to her generation when she later tries to protect her own daughter from this feeling of threat. But then February 2022 arrives, and what previously seemed like a phantom suddenly becomes terrifyingly real. "Blinde Geister" is a multi-layered and moving novel that exposes deep-rooted fears against the backdrop of contemporary German history and explores the strange and enraptured in people with a keen sense. (C.H.Beck)

Lina Schwenk, born in Bochum in 1988, initially worked as a nurse and in medical refugee aid after completing her training. She then studied medicine in Witten, St. Etienne and Cardiff and has been working as a doctor ever since. Her texts have appeared on WDR and in numerous anthologies. She was a finalist for the Open Mike in 2022 and the Alfred Döblin Prize in 2025 with an excerpt from her novel "Blinde Geister". In 2024, she received the GWK Prize for Literature for the unpublished manuscript. The novel is also on the shortlist for the 2025 Harbour Front Literature Festival Debut Prize.

Tickets for our events are available both in the bookshop and online at https://transfer-dortmund.de/veranstaltungen

Start: 20:00 / Admission: 19:30