Sa, 14.3.20

Leipzig liest! Tomas Blum: Wofür wir uns schämen (What We are Ashamed Of)

Event

Photo:Krystian Kolbe

Verlag: Liesmich Verlag

Time  19.30 – 22.00

Three days left befo­re you will be let go. Dark memo­ries and pier­cing doubts—and a clean break. And who is Marie?

Your red-hai­red col­le­ague has been sit­ting at the desk behind you sin­ce you star­ted working in this office. At first, you weren’t sure if it was her, the girl from the past, the girl from that one night your father for­bid to men­ti­on ever again. But when your col­le­ague asks you if you would like to accom­pa­ny her to the Bang Bang, becau­se only cou­ples are admit­ted the­re, your who­le world starts coming apart.

Blum’s style is some­ti­mes thoughtful, some­ti­mes full of humor, some­ti­mes dark. Wofür wir uns schä­men is a frank, warts-and-all account of a coming-to-terms with the past and the search for a real con­nec­tion; it is poe­tic and lively and never forces defi­ni­te ans­wers on the reader.

„Tomas Blum has writ­ten the sto­ry of an encoun­ter that for once has not­hing to do with the love-and-eupho­ria lark of con­ven­tio­nal lite­ra­tu­re. And he achie­ves what it’s all real­ly about: to regain a sen­se of what is real about being ali­ve.“ (Ralf Julke | Leipziger Internet Zeitung)

Tomas Blum, born 1968, work­ed in care for child­ren with phy­si­cal and men­tal disa­bi­li­ties for many years. After taking a degree in lite­ra­tu­re, he lived in Northern Ireland; the­re he star­ted working on his first novel for which he was reward­ed a scho­lar­shop by Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. He work­ed at an actor’s agen­cy to finan­ce his post­gra­dua­te stu­dies in media studies.

After taking his degree, he work­ed as a poli­tics and eco­no­mics wri­ter and ghost­wri­ter for twen­ty years. An acci­dent made him return to lite­ra­ry wri­ting. His play “Der Kuss” (“The Kiss”) pre­mie­red in 2016 in Berlin. “Wofür wir uns schä­men” (“What We are Ashamed Of”) is his debut novel. Blum lives and works in Berlin.

Liesmich Verlag, foun­ded in Leipzig in 2013, is an inde­pen­dent publisher focu­sing on fic­tion. In 2014, Liesmich brought out the bike cou­rier novel “Pedalpilot Doppel-Zwo” (“Pedalling Pilot Double Two”) and in 2015, the road novel “Fayvel der Chinese. Aufzeichnungen eines wahn­wit­zi­gen Ganoven” (“Fayvel the Chinaman. Diary of a Lunatic Crook”). The dys­to­pian novel “Cronos Cube”, published in 2017, was nomi­na­ted for the Seraph Literatury Award for fan­ta­stic lite­ra­tu­re in the cate­go­ry “Bestes Debüt” (“Best Newcomer”).

In March 2019, “Konfetti im Bier” (“Confetti in Your Beer”) was published, Toni Gottschalk’s debut and the first German spea­king novel about Ultras. The Deutsche Akademie für Fußball-Kultur (“German Academy of Football Culture”) nomi­na­ted it as “Fußballbuch des Jahres 2019” (“Football Book of the Year 2019”).

Further infor­ma­ti­on: www.tomas-blum.com and www.liesmich-verlag.de