KAE TEMPEST

"A lifetime of searching" Berlin book premiere - hosted by Carolin Emcke

Kae Tempest from South London is a multi-talent: in addition to spoken word tracks, Kae writes poems and novels and designs plays. As part of Literatur LIVE, Kae Tempest presents his second novel "Ein Leben lang gesucht". Carolin Emcke moderates and Jannik Schümann reads the German text.

A heartbreaking, uplifting book about the transformative power of love

In "A Lifetime of Searching", Kae Tempest tells a powerful and inimitable story of family and forgiveness, redemption and atonement, longing and devotion. Of the things we seek when we hide, and of what finds us when we let ourselves be seen.

Rothko Taylor has washed up again, in Edgecliff, the rugged small town on the coast. Twenty years ago, Rothko had left it. And suddenly the past is approaching at breakneck speed: the kids on the skateboards just like they used to be, the splintered benches with a view out to sea, where Mum used to sit with the cans in her clutch. The one nice place in town where Dad nonetheless failed in his attempt to build a happy home. And then Dionne's block of houses. The beautiful, extraordinary Dionne, the only person who ever really looked at Rothko and saw what was there. Back then, dey was overwhelmed, by the sheer fear, sank below the surface into chaos. But dey made it out alive. And this time, Rothko is determined that things will be different.

"A lifetime of searching" will be published on March 9, 2026 by Suhrkamp Verlag 350 pages.