Hamburger Frühjahrslesetage – Steffen Kopetzky

In the organizer's words:

Steffen Kopetzky reads from his new novel "Atom".

London at the beginning of the Second World War. Simon Batley actually never wants to have anything to do with the British secret service again. Years earlier, he worked for them, naively and undercover. This led to a catastrophe that Batley never fully understood; his love for his fellow student Hedi von Treyden also ended abruptly. But the war changes everything. Agent Batley discovers a new German weapon with unprecedented destructive power. Soon afterwards, instructed by Niels Bohr and Rudolf Hess, he travels to Lisbon as a spy - and finally to the Third Reich.

He wants to track down the mysterious Nazi Hans Kammler, chief planner of underground research facilities and secret weapons programs. While Batley tries to get to the German technology and Kammler before the Soviets and the USA do, he also pursues a personal mission: he wants to find Hedi again and finally find out what happened in Berlin back then. Kopetzky's "Atom" (Rowohlt Berlin) tells the story of the hunt for nuclear technology, the trail of a phantom - and a man caught between guilt, love and hope.

Moderator: Christoph Bungartz