Entzug

Space Days. Literature and Participation
Reading and discussion with Christoph Peters, moderated by Lothar Müller
“Withdrawal” begins with a bottle of vodka on the kitchen table of a family of three—and the question of how it got there. Did the narrator leave it there while his wife and child were at the playground? The novel opens with a writer who drinks in order to write, think, and feel. Eventually, he reaches a point where he drinks only to ask himself: Drink and die, or quit and live? He checks himself into a clinic. “Withdrawal” is brutally honest, dealing with the complicated logistics of addiction, with betraying those closest to you—and with betraying yourself. And it tells the story of the path out of addiction, back into life. Christoph Peters, born in 1966 in Kalkar, has received numerous awards for his books. He lives in Berlin. His most recent work, “Innerstädtischer Tod” (2025), is the final part of his trilogy inspired by Wolfgang Koeppen.

Supported by the Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg