»Mogadischu« Lesung mit Sandra Hoffmann

Host: Judith Heitkamp

Summer 1977: During a vacation in Italy, a mother and her five-year-old son, Kornelius, disappear without a trace. Left behind are the father, who is at a loss for words, and the eleven-year-old daughter, Fritzi, who has too many. She waits for a sign of life from the two of them. And for an explanation. There isn’t one. So she begins to construct one for herself: from glances, from hints, from the images on the evening news. Outside, the “German Autumn” has the country on edge. Wanted posters, special news broadcasts, the hijacking of the Landshut to Mogadishu—for Fritzi, every news report becomes a possible lead. Perhaps there is finally a logic to the violence of the world that can decipher this personal tragedy?

Forty-seven years later, Friederike is an interior designer and, following the death of her brother Kornelius, meets his son Tim for the first time: he is twenty and a climate activist with “Last Generation.” Through him, it becomes clear who her brother had become under their mother’s influence—and how what was never spoken still continues to have an effect. A fragile bond develops between aunt and nephew: two present moments and a tentative new way of speaking. A novel about what destroys families without ever being spoken aloud—and about whether the legacy of silence can be broken (Berlin Verlag).