Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre | KulturImZelt Braunschweig

In the organizer's words:

Festival KulturImZelt 2025

📍 Bürgerpark, Braunschweig

🗓 August 21 - September 21, 2025

- More than 50 shows from the fields of live concerts, readings, cabaret & comedy. -

Including:

Berlin, present day: a young woman starts a new job at a major TV station. She is full of hope, euphoric, almost floating. Everything seems perfect - almost too perfect. At the same time in Los Angeles: in the gardens of the legendary "Chateau Marmont", an eccentric society of Hollywood bigwigs seeks distraction from the impending collapse of the old world order. Among them: the narrator. And Rose McGowan - actress, activist, controversial voice. Shortly afterwards, the Weinstein scandal shakes the film industry, and Rose is one of the first to speak out publicly. Before she disappears, she leaves a mysterious message for the narrator. Why him in particular?

The #MeToo movement is spreading around the world from Hollywood. But the hope for change comes up against stubborn power structures. Back in Berlin, the narrator is torn from the role of observer. He becomes part of a system that he can no longer ignore - and finds himself in an existential dilemma.

"Still awake?" is a portrait of our times, a typical Stuckrad-Barre. Literarily brilliant, humorous and uncompromising, this novel tells of power structures and abuse of power, courage and human abysses.

Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre, born in Bremen in 1975, is one of the best-known contemporary German authors. After working as an editor at the German "Rolling Stone" and author for the "Harald Schmidt Show", he published his debut novel "Soloalbum" in 1998, which made him instantly famous. In addition to other novels such as "Panikherz" (2016), he also works as a journalist and presenter. His works are characterized by an unmistakable style that interweaves pop culture, social criticism and personal experiences.

"'Noch wach?' is the book of the year, by one of the best German writers of our time, on one of the most important social issues of recent years, #MeToo and abuse of power."

- DER SPIEGEL