Maren Gottschalk: Jenseits der Ngong Berge

In the organizer's words:

TANIAS BLIXEN - the novel biography about her extraordinary life

Reading with the author Maren Gottschalk

It is a bright, clear morning when 28-year-old Tania Blixen sets foot on African soil for the first time in Mombasa in January 1914. She is overwhelmed by the fabulous sight of the city, but above all she is excited because her future husband Baron Bror Blixen is waiting for her on the quayside. Their new life, full of promise, is to begin here in Kenya. They buy a coffee farm, picturesquely situated below the Ngong Mountains, and Tania immerses herself in this exotic world, which is so foreign to her and becomes her beloved home. When she returns to her birthplace in Denmark 17 fateful years later, she has lost everything: Her marriage has failed, the farm is bankrupt and the heaven-defying love of her life has died in a fatal accident. But a part of Tania's soul remains forever in the vastness of Africa - and finds solace in the memory of a life made of the stuff novels are made of. This biography traces the life of a woman who fought for her love and happiness, who criticized colonialism early on and was ridiculed for it. She knew poverty as well as luxury, was self-centered and at the same time self-critical. Gifted with humor and courage, she defied everything life had to offer her until old age.

Maren Gottschalk was born in Leverkusen in 1962. She studied history and politics in Munich and wrote her doctorate on historiography. She writes biographies and novels and also contributes to the WDR radio program ZeitZeichen. She lives and works in Leverkusen and Cologne.

A cooperative event with the Katholisches Bildungsforum Leverkusen.