Lesung & Gespräch mit Daniel Gräfe ("Wir waren Kometen")

In the organizer's words:

Author Daniel Gräfe reads from his debut novel "We were comets"

Early summer 2010: A mysterious phone call - and Lukas Brandt (32) is caught up in his longing for a more fulfilling life. He leaves his job in a hurry and sets off in search of the caller with whom he once spent the most exciting and painful year of his life in Berlin: Luba Matei.

On his odyssey across Romania, he gets stranded in the proverbial Wallachia, befriends the cannabis farmer Bogdan and encounters the shadows of Luba's past, which lead him to Luba's childhood secret under the Ceaușescu regime. For the first time in his life, Lukas gives up all certainties.

But Luba, who wanted to start a new life in Rome, is also on the move again: she demands her share of happiness and wants to finally confront her tormentors.

"We Were Comets" is a touching and poetic tale of longing for a different life, of freedom, oppression and unequal origins. And in the middle of it all, a couple who take each other on and fight for each other.

Daniel Gräfe, born in 1971 in Biberach, worked on social projects in the USA and Egypt and, after studying in London, traveled to Africa, Asia and the Middle East researching and writing. He has worked as a cultural and business editor in East and West and is a reporter for the Stuttgarter Zeitung. His stories, reportages and poetry have won several awards.

Moderated by Sabine Horstmann (litty bookshop).