Eva Menasse »Alleinruhelage«

The etymological origins of the affectionate address ‘du altes Haus’ cannot be definitively traced, but who needs etymology when there is such a marvellous novel that enters directly into dialogue with the old house: It stands alone in the middle of nowhere ‘like a god or an idol’ and has witnessed the story of a family – at first happy, then not so happy – in the wake of the fall of the Wall, just as it witnessed the history of the GDR, back when it was a ‘Waldschänke’ next to a campsite.

Now the woman stands there alone and must find her way into a new life: ‘House, I’m selling you.’ With Alla and Bolek from Poland, two chain-smoking jack-of-all-trades, the house is being refurbished and renovated one last time, which brings back many memories: of gruelling battles with the lawn and the moles, of intercultural clashes with the East German dacha-dwellers, of forest adventures with the children, when they were still small, of summer evenings with friends. And the house was always there, alone in the woods, entwined with clematis, with a floor that was dangerously subsiding, because – but that’s another story.

The author Eva Menasse will be talking to the journalist Cathrin Kahlweit about renovation and saying goodbye, about friendship and love (both essential when it comes to renovating and saying goodbye) in the Große Saal of the old, freshly renovated house at Fasanenstraße 23.

Eva Menasse »Alleinruhelage«, KiWi 2026