Reading by Radka Denemarková

In her novel "Schokoladenblut" (Hoffmann und Campe), Radka Denemarková weaves together three historical life stories into a panorama of the 19th century: Czech writer Božena Němcová labours over a patriotic fairy tale whose message she herself has come to doubt. George Sand, her French contemporary, defies social convention and finds a free voice through literature. Across the Atlantic, John D. Rockefeller uses oil to usher in a new age of power. The novel moves across countries and continents, tracing the social and political roots of the world we live in today.

Radka Denemarková, born in 1968 in the Czech Republic, is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and translator of German literature. Her works have been translated into more than 20 languages and received numerous awards; in 2023 she was elected to the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung.

Organiser: Literaturhaus Schleswig-Holstein