»Alleinruhelage« Eine Lesung mit Eva Menasse

Host: Cathrin Kahlweit

After her marriage ends, a woman suddenly finds herself alone at her weekend home. This is where she once sought an idyllic life with her family, and now she wants to make a fresh start.

The help she needs has practically fallen from the sky: Alla and Bolek from Poland, two chain smokers who can do just about anything. The renovations and setbacks, the burst water pipes, and the spiteful behavior of the neighboring allotment gardeners trigger many memories and new insights—and as a Viennese woman in a double foreign land, the narrator may perceive some of the pitfalls of German-German history more keenly than others. Then she decides to sell her beloved house in order to move out and break free once more from her “stable, solitary haven.”

Eva Menasse has written a multi-layered novel (Kiepenheuer & Witsch) about taking stock of a life so far—a shrewd reflection on alienation and home—and on saying goodbye.