Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata and Oxford Bookstore cordially invite you to an evening with Bodo Kirchhoff, winner of the German Book Prize 2016 on Wedesday, 15 February 2017, at 6.30 p.m., at the Oxford Bookstore, Kolkata.
Bodo Kirchhoff will read excerpts from his award-winning book Encounter (Widerfahrnis) in German and in English translation.
Prof. Kavita Panjabi, Head of the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University will lead a conversation with Mr. Kirchhoff, which will be followed by a discussion.
Until recently, Reither ran a small publishing company in the big city, now he lives a solitary life on the edge of the Alps. In the evening, his pondering over a mysterious book is interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. He opens the door and right there and then, the encounter which will take him to Sicily within three days, begins. The hand that takes him there is Leonie Palm's. Leonie used to own a hat-shop. But now that the world lacks faces that look good with hats on and writers have come to outnumber readers, they both had good reasons to quit. Yet, an even stronger bond between the two is provided by the fact that neither of them is prepared for true love anymore. Upon arrival on the Mediterranean, after three full days in the car, this love does hit them and they are joined by a girl who does not speak a single word. She is just there ...
In his novella Widerfahrnis, Bodo Kirchhoff presents the parable of a twofold fall: into love, without being able to fully feel it and into humanity, without being good enough.
Bodo Kirchhoff, born in 1948 in Hamburg, is one of the most important and well-known authors of the contemporary German literature. His last two novels Desire and Melancholy (2014) and Love in Broad Strokes (2012) were published with Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt and celebrated by readers and critics alike. In addition the admittedly prolific writer has also penned screenplays and presented a literary chat show on television. He lives in Frankfurt and on Lake Garda in Italy. There, he and his wife give literature workshops.
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