Katja Lange-Müller / Necati Öziri / Francesca Melandri

Katja Lange-Müller: Unser Ole
Moderation: Thomas Geiger

Born in East Berlin in 1951, expelled from school in the GDR for "anti-socialist behavior", Katja Lange-Müller gained experience in an apprenticeship as a typesetter, studying literature and as a psychiatric nurse. She has received numerous awards for her stories and novels such as "Böse Schafe" and "Drehtür". In "Unser Ole" (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2024), four stranded people find themselves under one roof. Ida, once beautiful, works as a model at senior fashion shows. Short of money, she is happy to stay in the country house with Elvira, a chance acquaintance from the department store. She, in turn, is hoping for company and help looking after her 17-year-old grandson Ole. A tragic event brings his mother Manuela to the scene, who last saw the boy when he was one year old. As the women circle each other suspiciously, their family stories, life lies, hurts and longings unfold in a furious intimate play.

Necati Öziri: Vatermal
Moderation: Martin Bruch

Young Arda is in hospital with organ failure and writes a farewell letter to his absent father, whom he has never met. In it, he reviews his life: Conflicts with his alcoholic mother, a sister who runs away from home, endless hours at the immigration office, but also his first love and his time with his friends Savas, Bojan and Danny. With "Vatermal" (Claassen, 2023), Necati Öziri creates an idiosyncratic sound: angry, quick-witted, funny and tender. His young heroes seek orientation in a society in which they never really arrive. Öziri opens our eyes to this German reality, commented the jury of the German Book Prize 2023.

In his acclaimed debut novel, the author and dramaturge, who grew up in the Ruhr region and now lives in Berlin, takes up themes from his play "Get Deutsch or Die Tryin", which premiered at the Maxim Gorki Theater in 2017. As a curator, he headed the International Forum of the Berliner Festspiele's Theatertreffen.

Francesca Melandri: Kalte Füsse
Moderation: Jutta Person

Francesca Melandri first made a name for herself in Italy as a screenwriter. After "Eva schläft" and "Über Meereshöhe", her third novel "Alle, außer mir" - the independent book trade's favorite book of 2018 - was a huge success with the public. In it, Melandri links the fate of today's refugees with Italy's colonial past and "hits the nervous heart of the present with pinpoint accuracy" (SZ). In "Kalte Füße" (Wagenbach, 2024, translated by Esther Hansen), she links the end of peace in Europe with a repressed chapter of Italian history - and the story of her father.

In the winter of 1942/43, Italian soldiers fled from the Red Army in shoes with cardboard soles. Tens of thousands froze to death, Melandri's father survived. The "retreat from Russia" is etched in Italy's collective memory as a trauma. But it is only when she sees pictures and scenes of Russia's war of aggression at the beginning of 2022 that the author realizes that it is primarily Ukraine where her father was. "Cold Feet" is a touching dialog with a loved one: an unflinching book about what war does to bodies and minds, both yesterday and today.
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Photos: f.l.t.r. © Annette Hauschild/Ostkreuz, Sebnur Tansu Kayaalp, Gallimard, Francesca Mantovani

Sponsors: Cultural Office of the City of Freiburg, Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg, Sparkasse Freiburg-Nördlicher Breisgau, Guzzoni-Federer-Stiftung, kindly supported by jos fritz bookshop and Park Hotel Post

Date: 9.11.2024, 3-6 pm
Location: Literaturhaus Freiburg, Bertoldstraße 17
Admission: 11/7 euros

Literature talk
Literaturhaus