Ah, These Wonderful Gaps!

Matthias Nawrat's novel "Das glückliche Schicksal" (Rowohlt, 2026) centers on a Polish-Jewish scientist in exile and leaps across decades-long gaps: between the Gulag Archipelago and Solidarity in 1980s Poland, between forced labor in Germany and exile in Venice, between game theory, cybernetics, and social psychology.

These gaps may hold answers to questions Nawrat leaves open, yet which confront readers: How does one tell the story of crimes against humanity? How does one judge participation in historical events? How does one act in the present?

Nawrat discusses this with Bielefeld social scientist Kornelia Kończal - whether they agree or disagree remains to be seen. The event is created in cooperation with Deutschlandfunk Kultur and will be broadcast on October 23, 2026 at 19:30 and October 25, 2026 at 22:05.