Lesung mit Daniela Dröscher – Späte Selbstermächtigung in Junge Frau mit Katze

In the organizer's words:

Throughout her life, Ela was literally overshadowed by her mother. Her father was convinced that her fat body was responsible for the family's misfortune. Now Ela is an adult and it is her own body that makes her despair. Shortly before completing her doctorate, Ela experiences a breakdown. As she wrestles with the question of whether she really deserves her place in the academic world, her body rebels.

Everything is difficult before it becomes easy: In her novel Young Woman with a Cat, Daniela Dröscher tells an intense and humorous story of a woman who finally takes responsibility for her own happiness. Ela's late self-discovery and self-empowerment is masterfully constructed as autofiction, psychologically captivating and adorably funny.

Daniela Dröscher, born in 1977, grew up in Rhineland-Palatinate and lives in Berlin. She writes prose, essays and theater texts. Her debut novel Die Lichter des George Psalmanazar was published by Berlin Verlag in 2009, followed by the short story collection Gloria and the novel Pola as well as the memoir Zeige deine Klasse. Die Geschichte meiner sozialen Herkunft by Hoffmann & Campe. She has been awarded the Anna Seghers Prize, the German Literature Fund working grant, the Robert Gernhardt Prize (2017) and a residency at Villa Kamogawa, Kyoto, among others. Her autofictional novel Lügen über meine Mutter (Kiepenheuer & Witsch) was shortlisted for the German Book Prize in 2022. In 2023 Daniela Dröscher was Writer-in-Residence at the Goethe-Institut Reykjavík.

The event will be moderated by Emily Grunert, Literaturbüro NRW e.V. and takes place in cooperation with the Zentralbibliothek Düsseldorf. It is a reading as part of the Sundays in the Library program.
Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.