Hannah Herzsprung & Chris Kraus Die Sonne & Die Mond

In the organizer's words:

Actress Hannah Herzsprung presents the new novel by bestselling author Chris Kraus, together with the author himself: THE SUN AND THE MOON is about the poisoned friendship of two morticians, one of whom was a comedy star and the other her beloved prey. A wild and very personal story about indissoluble bonds, death and the miraculous happiness in misfortune. An evening for romantic melancholics with or without a sense of humor.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Life is a train. Death is the terminus. But even the survivors get off themselves, so to speak, when their loved one has reached their destination and said goodbye to the world.

Based on his own experiences, writer and filmmaker Chris Kraus has created a story that deals with how people who repress transience deal with the last things and at the same time is the drama of a friendship that is both fragile and existential.

It is about two best friends who started a stage career together in their youth - but then came the break. Sonja, known as Sonne, was betrayed by Jana von Mond. Years later, Jana - now a comedy star - stands at the door of Sonne's funeral home and asks her to organize the funeral service for her loved one. Old wounds open up, new ones are added. The sun and the moon cannot leave their orbits, they continue to shine, each in their own way, sometimes cold, sometimes warm.

"A novel as untamedly emotional as John Irving's "Garp" and as weird as "Six Feet Under". Linguistic fireworks - highly dramatic, tender and crazy." (Diogenes Verlag).

The book will be published on August 20, 2025 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

THE PEOPLE INVOLVED

CHRIS KRAUS, born in Göttingen in 1963, is a filmmaker, screenwriter and author. His internationally successful feature films (including "Yesterday's Flowers" and "Four Minutes") have won numerous awards, including seven German Film Awards, eight Bavarian Film Awards and over 100 other awards. Chris Kraus has written four novels to date. His literary breakthrough, the family epic "Das kalte Blut", has been translated into many languages and became an award-winning bestseller in France and Spain.

HANNAH HERZSPRUNG, born in Hamburg in 1981, had her international breakthrough as the lead actress in Chris Kraus' film "Vier Minuten" (2007), for which she received the Bavarian Film Award and was celebrated worldwide with a dozen awards. Since then, she has become one of the most successful actresses of her generation. She has not only taken on leading roles in German blockbusters such as Baran bo Odar's "WHO AM I" (2013) or Karoline Herfurth's "Sweethearts" (2018), but can currently also be seen in the most successful German series such as "Babylon Berlin" (since 2017) or the cinema series "Woodwalkers" (2024).