Maria Stepanova: Der Absprung - Bilingual reading and conversation with Elisabeth Cheauré

"There was something pleasantly otherworldly about the lightness and gentleness that animated M., and she felt disembodied like glass ..." The writer M., who has been in exile in Western Europe for several months, sets off to Denmark for a reading and ends up stranded at the border station with an empty battery. The situation fills her with relief. An escape room, a traveling circus and a fleeting acquaintance promise the long-awaited chance to disappear.

In "Der Absprung" (Suhrkamp, 2024, translated from the Russian by Olga Radetzkaja), Maria Stepanova captures the tense state of exile, which is the fault of a "beast" of which she is a part - connected through language and what remains home, even if it is lost. How to write when the words fall apart in your mouth? Her prose, full of finesse and subtle irony, shows astonishing ways out: "A novel like a salto mortale, deadly serious and full of fantasy" (Jutta Person, Philosophie Magazin). Translation: Jurij Lileev, German reading voice: Annette Pehnt.
---
Photo: © Ekko von Schwichow / Suhrkamp Verlag

Co-organizer: Buchhandlung Fundevogel, Zwetajewa-Zentrum an der University campus Freiburg

Date: 4.6.2025, 19:30
Venue: Literaturhaus Freiburg, Bertoldstraße 17
Admission: 11/7 Euro

Reading and discussion
Literaturhaus