Caroline Wahl "1999 Meter über dem Meer" x Harbour Front Literaturfestival Hamburg

Leave it all behind! Push the boundaries! Be free at last!—that’s what a young woman wants at any cost. And via Bali and Berlin, she ends up in the ideal place for con artists and anyone else who wants to aim high: St. Moritz, or as the saying goes, “1,999 meters above sea level”! There, with her bright orange-dyed hair, she suddenly finds herself mingling with the rich and famous, posing as an artist. It feels surprisingly good for a long time—if it weren’t for that handsome man with the ice-blue eyes…

At the 2025 Harbour Front Literature Festival, Caroline Wahl completely wowed the audience: At the NDR podcast “Eat Read Sleep” at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, the entire audience was on its feet by the end. And anyone who’d hoped to snag a ticket for her reading the next day at “Uebel und Gefährlich” had to admit defeat.

That makes it all the more delightful that Caroline Wahl is once again making a stop in Hamburg on her tour with her new novel and returning to the Harbor Front Literature Festival. At the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, she’ll present “1,999 Meters Above Sea Level” to the Hamburg audience for the first time.

“1999 Meter über dem Meer” is a wild roller-coaster ride through life. A story that oscillates between despair and comedy—and, incidentally, a portrait of our times.

“The author makes it clear: she is a young woman, and she’s in complete control. That is her message.” – Süddeutsche Zeitung

Caroline Wahl, born in Mainz in 1995 and raised near Heidelberg, studied German language and literature in Tübingen and Berlin. With her debut novel “22 Bahnen,” she achieved extraordinary success right off the bat in 2023; the book won numerous awards and was adapted for the big screen. Further successes followed with *Windstärke 17* and *Die Assistentin*: with a total of three million books sold in three years, Caroline Wahl is now considered one of the most important voices in contemporary German-language literature. *1999 Meter über dem Meer* is her fourth novel.