Stefanie Sargnagel liest

Reading with Stefanie Sargnagel

“Binge Living,” Stefanie Sargnagel’s debut novel, became a surprise bestseller during the 2013 holiday book-selling season in Austria. Thirteen years later, Stefanie Sargnagel has become an indispensable part of contemporary German-language literature with her incisive, political, tragicomic, and genre-bending works. In Stuttgart, she will present her two most recent books, “Oktoberfest” (August 2026) and “Opernball” (January 2026). Squeezed into a dirndl, she takes a closer look at an event that many find unbearable while others consider it the most beautiful thing of all: the Munich Oktoberfest. From chronic excess to the celebration of high culture, it’s just a stone’s throw for Sargnagel when she turns her sights to the Vienna Opera Ball and tells of the rich and beautiful, the rich but not-so-beautiful, evening gowns, and waltz dreams. Twice laced up and dressed to the nines to make the wooden floors of the beer tent and the parquet floor of the Vienna State Opera tremble—and to conquer the Stuttgart stage!

A collaboration between Literaturhaus Stuttgart and Kulturzentrum Merlin