Worte und Töne

Literature, music and dramatic art – the second evening of Words and Sounds introduces two leading contemporary female authors Zdravka Evtimova and Patricia Melo. Burgtheater actress Dörte Lyssewski reads the German translation of the texts, the music is provided by Trio Lumi.

Blood of a Mole is the collection of short stories by the acclaimed Bulgarian author Zdravka Evtimova, whose work is available in many languages including German and English. The stories are set in a Bulgarian provincial town not far from Sofia. They take place in our post-industrial present day and focus on women who prevail in the ruins of the old order and become emancipated from crumbling patriarchal conditions. Their husbands have moved away, working in Dubai or for the olive harvest in Tuscany, usually stranded somewhere in the West. Blood of a Mole recounts the stories of those women who must now take care of surviving on their own at home, expanding their horizons and beginning to assert themselves and their dignity.

Patrícia Melo in City of Others immerses us in a dirty, dazzling metropolis and asks what makes us a human being. On the one side are glittering pools, ornate sculptures and imposing gates of the luxury residential complexes of São Paulo. On the other side are the dirty shelters on the Praça da Matriz, the place where those who no longer have any place come together. Here, of all places, between makeshift shacks and oil drums, in a world where everyone is the neighbour, an unexpected community arises.

In cooperation with Festival Glatt&Verkehrt and the Polish Cultural Institute Vienna.

***BIOGRAPHS***

Zdravka Evtimova
b. 1959, is a Bulgarian author. She studied English philology in Bulgaria and the USA and translates novels and science fiction from American English. Her books have been translated into numerous languages, now a short story collection is also available for the first time in German.

Recently published: Blood of a Mole (Maulwurfsblut), 2024.

Every time I read Zdravka’s stories I reflect on the power her female characters have, how unapologetic they are, how particularly corporeal they are while also giving the impression of otherworldliness. If there’s any kind of pixie dust on them, it’s outfitted with razor teeth and talons. Walt Disney wouldn’t know what he should do with them. That’s exactly why I love them.
Kelly Luce, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading

Patrícia Melo
Radio plays and screenplays. The Times named Patrícia Melo the leading writer of the millennium in Latin America. Melo is a virtuoso chronicler of a criminal metropolitan society. Most recently published in German: The City of Others, 2024.

A Brazilian Les Misérables. An indispensable book.
Digestivo Cultural

Dörte Lyssewski
Born in 1969, is a German actress. She began her career at Peter Stein's Berlin Schaubühne and has been a member of the Burgtheater ensemble in Vienna since 2009. She has received the Kainz Medal, the Eysoldt Ring and the Nestroy Theater Prize, among others. She appears in radio and film productions.

Trio Lumi
Trio Lumi was founded in 2018 by students from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Saimi Kortelainen comes from Estonia, Oskar Longyka and Urban Megušar from Slovenia. The trio takes its audience on a musical journey from southern to northern Europe, with respect for traditions and a fiery joy of playing.

Saimi Kortelainen - Violin, vocal, traditional instruments
Oskar Longyka - Violin, vocal
Urban Megušar - Cello, vocal