Julia Franck reads in the Drewitz library: Love and Death in Change

On Thursday, September 12, 2024, the Ingeborg-Drewitz library organizes a reading with the renowned author Julia Franck, who in her works immerse themselves deeply into the subjects of love and death. This event promises to kidnap the listeners into a moving story about the life and memories of a woman born in East Berlin and whose fate was shaped by the political circumstances of the division of Germany.

In her novel "Welten", Julia Franck describes the dramatic circumstances that led to her own childhood in western Germany. At the age of only eight, she is brought to the Federal Republic of Germany with her sisters by her mother. This escape begins in an emergency available in Marienfelde, a temporary accommodation for displaced persons and migrants, and finally leads to Schleswig-Holstein. The time in a sleepy farmhouse is particularly formative for the thirteen -year -old, where it has to master a number of challenges.

memories and challenges

With a young age in which she only begins to understand the world around her, Julia sets off on the way to an uncertain future. Your dream of a better life is inhibited by social difficulties. After moving to West Berlin, the student is faced with the need to support her family financially. In addition to social welfare, she finds a job where she is cleaning - an urgent picture of the reality of many people in her position.

During this stressful time she meets her father and the encounter turns out to be bitter sweet, because soon she loses him again. These turns in her life are not only formative for the protagonist, but also for readers who deeply immerse themselves in the emotions and struggles of their figures through Franck's haunting and living images.

love and loss as a narrator

In her novel, Franck also addresses the complex facets of relationships far beyond the topics of flight and identity. A central part of the narrative deals with her great love for Stephan, a figure that, like Julia, fights with her own challenges. This romance not only becomes a ray of hope in Julia's life, but also to the scene for internal conflicts and the search for belonging and security.

Franck's ability to interweave the past with the present shows readers how memories can form a person's life. The flashbacks and thoughts of the protagonist are skillful narrative techniques that bring the sudden jumps of the emotions closer to the audience and let them immerse themselves in the events.

The reading in the Ingeborg-Drewitz library offers an outstanding opportunity to personally experience the remarkable writer and to learn more about her view of storytelling. We can be excited to see how the central themes of your work will be brought to the audience.