"Trainspotting" & "Men in Love"

German premiere
Reading and moderated conversation

The global bestseller "Trainspotting" catapulted Scottish underground author Irvine Welsh to international fame thirty years ago, and Danny Boyle's legendary 1995 film adaptation became a cultural touchstone. Now Irvine Welsh is coming to Hamburg for the very first time!

David Foster Wallace, Nick Hornby, Nick Cave, Iggy Pop and many others have been - or still are - fans of Irvine Welsh. The film continues to appear regularly on lists of the ten greatest films ever made. The story of four friends - Mark Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie - and their punk-fuelled rage against the establishment became Welsh's defining subject, spawning several sequels.

The legendary Trainspotting gang is back. The German premiere of "Men in Love" fills a gap in the timeline: what actually happened right after the underground days of punk and drug-fuelled chaos in "Trainspotting"? How do you grow up without betraying your dreams? The gang goes looking for love at any cost - but can it possibly work out?

The result is a portrait of an entire generation, a Trainspotting saga, a punk and post-punk narrative. Welsh performs (more than reads) excerpts from his newly published novel "Men in Love" and meets Thorsten Nagelschmidt in a kind of literary summit - a Trainspotting saga devotee, author and vocalist of the punk band "Muff Potter". Welsh will also be signing not only his latest novel but a specially released new edition of the cult classic "Trainspotting".

"Irvine Welsh writes with skill, wit and compassion - an art bordering on genius. He is the best thing to happen to British literature in decades."
Nick Hornby

"Irvine Welsh is the real deal: a striking mix of nihilism and heartache, precise realism - especially in dialect and tone - and an almost archetypal..."