Vom guten Leben und Fischen im Trüben

Reading and discussion with Nadine Schneider and Elli Unruh, moderated by Katharina Borchardt

Author Nadine Schneider sets her novel "The Good Life" in a small village near Nuremberg. Christina grew up there with Anni, who fled to Germany from Romania in the mid-1960s. Anni, who accompanied her child and grandchild Christina into life as a single parent and once packed parcels at Quelle Versand - sent to the land of the economic miracle. Anni, who fights against loneliness, poverty and being a stranger. When Christina, long since grown up, has to say goodbye to her and the house, she follows the memories of Anni and Romania and realizes what she owes to her: the freedom to let go and find the place where the good life is at home. A little further east, author Elli Unruh tells the story of a German-Mennonite family who lived in the Soviet Union, in southern Kazakhstan, until the end of the 1980s. She immerses herself in the time of her ancestors, grandparents and parents and describes the lives of people who find support in traditions, religion and their own language. Enriched by the German that Mennonites from West Prussia brought with them to Russia - Plautdietsch - her novel "Fischen im Trüben" also presents a landscape of apple orchards and wild rivers that is often unknown to us. Nadine Schneider, born in Nuremberg in 1990, comes from a Romanian-German family and lives in Nuremberg. Elli Unruh, born in Georgijewka (Kazakhstan) in 1987, grew up in southern Germany. She lives in Stuttgart. "Fischen im Trüben" is nominated for the Leipzig Book Prize 2026.
A cooperation between the Literaturhaus, Haus der Heimat des Landes Baden-Württemberg and Stuttgart State Opera