Read and discuss works by contemporary German authors in this series hosted by the Goethe-Institut. All books can be read in recent English translation or in the German original; discussion will be in English. Led by local German professor
Amanda Sheffer (The Catholic University of America), this book club focuses on contemporary fiction and will explore experiences and thoughts about the text.
© Peter Stamm’s Agnes
In his work
Agnes, Peter Stamm composes a love story set in Chicago, Illinois. The story opens with Agnes’s death – by story – the novel explains. Sharing parallels to St. Agnes of Rome, the character comes from a wealthy family, who shuns romantic relationships. Agnes asks her new German-speaking boyfriend, who comes to Chicago to research and write a historical book on old train cars, to compose a story about her so she can have a better insight into how he perceives her. Dealing with themes of love and separation, life and death, and relationships, Stamm allows the reader a glimpse into the short time when the two share an apartment together.
Peter Stamm (b. 1963) took courses in Zürich in the areas of English, psychology, psychopathology, and business IT. He is counted among Switzerland’s 17 top German-speaking intellectuals, according to the German monthly magazine
Cicero. He has lived in Paris, New York and Scandinavia. In addition to
Agnes, he has composed radio plays for Radio DRS, Radio Bremen and WDR as well as stage plays.
In cooperation with the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at The Catholic University of America.
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