Should a daughter not be happier than her mother? Anna Brüggemann ("Trennungsroman") explores this question in her astute new book Wenn nachts die Kampfhunde spazieren gehen. She tells the story of mother Regina, who distributes her affection oppressively unequally. While daughter Antonia consistently undermines all expectations, daughter Wanda fulfills all the wishes placed in her. In Unser Ole, Katja Lange-Müller ("Böse Schafe", "Drehtür") has written a masterful intimate play about three women who were not loved by their mothers and two of whom now form a fateful community on the margins of society. Gradually, their family histories, their biographies and their emotional wounds unravel.
The authors talk to Maike Schiller about the lifelong longing for affection, about life's lies and inherited emotional coldness and, of course, about the great literary power of dysfunctional families.