John von Düffel

“The first ascetic of the future I ever met was a woman,” writes John von Düffel in his widely read book of hours Das Wenige und das Wesentliche (2022). He seeks out this woman, the Scottish woman Fiona, then a philosophy student, decades later. They spend two days together in Edinburgh, and an exchange of ideas about the questions of our time develops: How do we live properly? What is essential in a world of abundance? How much renunciation of consumption is possible? And what does this have to do with freedom? A pen pal relationship develops that also poses riddles. Who is Fiona actually? When Fiona visits Berlin, there is a surprise that puts the Edinburgh conversations in a new light.

Dr. John von Düffel is a dramaturge at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and Professor of Scenic Writing at the Berlin University of the Arts. He writes novels, collections of short stories and essays, including Wasser und andere Welten (2021), Die Wütenden und die Schuldigen (2021). He is the author of numerous plays and writes stage adaptations of novels and antique material.