“Problematic relationships with mothers are a big deal” – this is how author Dmitrij Kapitelman sums it up. The literary evening at KuStall Ottbergen is entirely dedicated to these often ambivalent relationships between mothers and their children.

The evening begins with Irène Némirovsky's story “The Ball.” The writer, born in Kyiv in 1903, paints a sharp picture of a mother-daughter dynamic in 1930s Paris. Claudia Michelsen reads the text about a narcissistic mother who plans a glamorous ball from which she excludes her daughter Antoinette – out of fear of her youthful radiance. Antoinette's childish revenge is radical: she throws the invitations into the Seine and lets her mother's hopes sink in the Paris sewer. In the end, the bitter realization remains: although Antoinette has freed herself, in her mother’s reflection, she also recognizes herself.

Dmitrij Kapitelman also tells of a mother-son relationship full of contradictions in his new novel “Russian Specialties.” As a child, he idolizes his “Back-Then-Mom” in Kyiv – today he struggles with the estrangement from a mother who identifies with Russian propaganda. The family lives in Leipzig, selling pelmeni and vodka, but the feeling of belonging crumbles since Putin's war against Ukraine began. The son loves the Russian language, his mother, his hometown Kyiv – and wrestles with the question of how to hold it all together. With fine humor and great openness, Kapitelman describes the attempt to free his mother from the grip of nationalist lies without losing himself in the process.

The evening will be musically accompanied by Sennu Laine, Sebastian Krunnies, and Marina Grauman. They will perform works by Gideon Klein and Ludwig van Beethoven specifically for this evening.