Isabelle Autissier

Murmansk, north of the Arctic Circle. For the first time, Yuri, who has long lived as an ornithologist in North America, returns to his homeland.
His father Rubin is dying, and only the mystery of Yuri’s grandmother Klara – a scientist during the Stalin era who was arrested in front of Rubin, then four years old – keeps him alive. Klara’s disappearance and a youth full of hardships have turned Rubin into a relentless fisherman and hard-hearted father, who now asks his unloved son for help in a final encounter: to find out what happened to Klara. And finally Juri comes across a truth that makes him realize how closely all three fates – his own, Klara’s and Rubin’s – are intertwined…
A great human adventure and a family search for clues, full of spectacular descriptions of a wild nature, grippingly narrated by bestselling author Isabelle Autissier.

Born and raised in Paris in 1956,Isabelle Autissier now lives in La Rochelle. She discovered her passion for sailing when she was six years old; in 1991 she caused a sensation as the first woman to sail around the world alone in a regatta. Since the nineties, she has devoted herself to writing. Her novel Heart on Ice (2017) was nominated for the Prix Goncourt and became a bestseller.

Reading and conversation in German and French.

Moderator: Anne-Marie Schirmer
Reader of the German text: Thomas Städtler
Interpreter: Nicoline Erichsen

In cooperation with the German-French Cultural Circle dfk