Die Routinen - 45 Sekunden - Son Lewandowski and Kim Bui

25 Years of Literaturhaus - Schweben. A counter-programme for difficult times
Readings and conversation with Son Lewandowski and Kim Bui, hosted by Thomas Susanka

"Die Routinen" dissects the world of competitive sport - a world everyone suspects is brutal, but few see or want to see how exploitative the system really is beneath all its glitter and spray-on glamour. For Amik, every gram counts, every competition, every repetition. She accepts each boundary crossed as the price of admission and bends to the competitive logic of her sport. Son Lewandowski writes with force about sport and politics, about fragile relationships and the limits of an ageing body - and about the biggest abuse scandal in the history of sport.

Joining the conversation is Kim Bui, a three-time Olympic gymnast. Her career came with deprivation, pain, and illness including bulimia. In her book "45 Sekunden" she gives a vivid account of the willpower it takes to train day after day for a competition that lasts just 45 seconds.

Son Lewandowski, born 1988, is a writer and curator based in Cologne. Kim Bui, born 1989 in Tübingen to refugees from Vietnam and Laos, lives in Stuttgart.

Supported by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, Literatursommer 2026