"Zwei Seiten - Der Podcast über Bücher"

Live podcast

Two stacks of books, two generations, two very different ways of looking at literature: in their WDR podcast "Zwei Seiten - Der Podcast über Bücher", Christine Westermann and Mona Ameziane talk about books that matter to them - and about the questions those books raise. It's about good stories, but not only about plot, characters and style. It's also about everyday life, memories, families, friendships, fashion, pain, comfort, arguments - everything that suddenly ends up on the table beside the book while you're reading.

What makes the format work is that no one arrives with ready-made opinions. Westermann and Ameziane bring different reading experiences, temperaments and generational perspectives. Sometimes they gush, sometimes they disagree - and from that friction comes exactly the kind of conversation literature needs: not reverential, not locked behind academic glass, but open, curious and direct.

At the Harbour Front Literaturfestival, the podcast becomes a stage show. Live, in front of an audience, with recommendations, objections and digressions. Christine Westermann and Mona Ameziane show what books can do today when you don't read them alone but talk about them together. Consider it an invitation to go home with a longer reading list than you arrived with...

Christine Westermann has been one of the defining voices in German literary culture for decades; Mona Ameziane, as a presenter, journalist and podcaster, reaches a younger audience that treats books as part of contemporary life. In 2024, both were awarded the Julius-Campe-Preis for "Zwei Seiten".