Readings
Claudia Rikl reads from her new novel "Elbland"
Friday, 29/05/2026 / 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM / Literaturhaus Uwe Johnson
A novel about a lost homeland on the banks of the Elbe.
After the death of her mother, actress Nina loses her voice. Her mother's silence chokes her. Too many questions remain unanswered:
What shook Irma so much that she was never able to give her eldest daughter the warmth she longed for? What happened back then, that last summer on the banks of the Elbe, when Nina's little sister Katja
sister Katja disappeared over the green border and the family broke up forever?
In her search for buried truths, Nina follows in her family's footsteps to the Czech Giant Mountains. Here she finally feels the sun on her skin and the ground under her feet again. And she comes across a photograph that leads her to the roots of the silence. The story of the Sudeten German expulsion unfolds in flashbacks, which has a painful effect right up to the present day. For it is only when what has been concealed comes to light that healing can begin.
Claudia Rikl was born and grew up in a small town in the former GDR. She is a literary scholar and writing lecturer and lives with her family in Leipzig. In Elbland, she deals with the history of her Sudeten German family.
All statements without guarantee.
