Book club
Goethe Book Club: “The High-Rise Diver” (Julia von Lucadou)

Tue, 05/10/2022
6:00 PM - 19:30 CDT

Online

Join the Goethe Book Club, hosted by Tanya Kelley, and discuss works from contemporary German-speaking authors. Each selection can be read in English translation or the original German; discussions will be held in English.  

On Tuesday, May 10th, at 6:00 pm CDT, we will meet to discuss The High-Rise Diver (German: Die Hochhausspringerin), written by Julia von Lucadou and translated by Sharmila Cohen. We are also excited to announce that Julia von Lucadou and Sharmila Cohen will be joining us for a virtual talk on May 21st. 

Please RSVP to receive access to the online book club:

Registration About the book:
Riva is a “high-rise diver,” a top athlete with millions of fans, and a perfectly functioning human on all levels. Suddenly she rebels, breaking her contract and refusing to train. Cameras are everywhere in her world, but she doesn’t know her every move is being watched by Hitomi, the psychologist tasked with reining Riva back in. Unquestionably loyal to the system, Hitomi’s own life is at stake: should she fail to deliver, she will be banned to the “peripheries,” the filthy outskirts of society. How is being human defined if someone has achieved perfection? The High-Rise Diver leads us into a brilliant new world that is as plausible as it is bitterly cold. Julia von Lucadou tells of the possibilities of this new world in this mastery of narratives about our future.  

About the author:
Julia von Lucadou was born in Heidelberg in 1982. She studied film and theater at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and Victoria University of Wellington and earned her PhD in Film Studies in 2015. Von Lucadou worked as both an assistant director and a television editor prior to writing The High-Rise Diver, her debut novel, which was nominated for the Swiss Book Prize in 2018. She lives between Biel, New York, and Cologne.

Summary: Courtesy of Hanser Verlag