Lola Randl - The Great Garden
At the Goethe-Institut's international online book club, like-minded people from all over Northern Europe can read German-language literature together and share their reading experience. What's really special is that the authors will join us live, read from their books and take part in our discussion.
For our third get-together on October 29, we welcome the filmmaker and writer Lola Randl who will read
Der große Garten (2019) with us.
"DER GROSSE GARTEN" (The Great Garden)
"An instinctive drive is felt as an irresistible urge. Plants and animals don't even think of supressing this urge, whereas humans increasingly repress or transform their urges." A novel about the difficulty of escaping the abundance of modern life by living in the countryside and growing vegetables in peace. And when a mother, a lover, an analyst and some voles join the mother's husband and children in the garden, even the therapist from the city is at a loss.
One day the filmmaker Lola Randl decides to turn her back on Berlin city life and to cultivate a garden in peace. In the heart of the Uckermark, the least populated region in Western Europe, she grapples with sowing times and soil qualities, pests and weeds, pruning and storage techniques. However, the turn to nature and a simple, uncomplicated life does not really succeed: her husband is joined by her lover, and when the relationship with her analyst becomes too close, he is replaced by a therapist. While Randl brings the city to the countryside and understands that one can't run away from oneself, the garden begins to bloom as colourfully as village life, enriched by ebullient Japanese women, artists, utopians and all kinds of seekers of happiness.
LOLA RANDL
© Author photo: private
Lola Randl was born in Munich in 1980. She is a film director, screenplay writer and novelist. She made her feature film debut with the film
Die Besucherin (The Visitor). The film
Von Bienen und Blumen (
On Bees and Flowers) had its premiere in the
Neues Deutsches Kino series in July 2018 at the Munich Film Festival. The bizarre documentary film deals playfully with experimental village life in the Uckermark region of Brandenburg. In 2019 her first novel
Der grosse Garten was published and made it onto the longlist of the German Book Prize.
Who can participate?
Everyone who wants to read, discover, meet German authors and share their reading experience with others is welcome. The conversation will be in German. All participants should have sufficient language skills to read and discuss in German.
Participation is free of charge.
Register Now
Technical requirements
We will use
Zoom for our meeting. We recommend the use of a headset, as speakers can create disturbing echo effects. Participation is possible from PC and Mac. To participate, simply follow the link we will send you when you register.
Back
