Reading by Anja Jonuleit: "Where the Wind Bears the Names" - a Stirring Novel

Description

She had decided not to think about the past anymore: the places, the people in her homeland, and certainly not about what happened back then in the summer of 1946, when she was eight years old and everything began. 2023. The 85-year-old Inge Sundermann reluctantly accepts an invitation to a class reunion in the Lüneburg Heath. A terrible guilt is connected to her childhood home, a guilt she once carried as a child and buried deep inside. But the past now catches up with Inge in the form of Helga von Borcke's diary entries, a woman who began in 1946 to write the chronicle of this idyllic landscape under the shadow of Bergen-Belsen. 1946. The 8-year-old Inge finds the body of a young woman in the woods on her way to violin lessons. A tragic process of lies, cover-ups, and heinous crimes unfolds, which will haunt Inge again with full force decades later. The idyllic Lüneburg Heath becomes the setting for war crimes, whose perpetrators still live undiscovered in their families decades later. The new novel by Anja Jonuleit, to be published on 25.03.2026, tells of the horrific events in the Lüneburg Heath and their cover-up, of old Nazi networks—and of two women (1946 and 2023) who are not willing to let the past rest. A stirring, deeply moving novel, nourished by reality. Anja Jonuleit, born in Bonn and raised on Lake Constance, worked for several years for the German Embassy in Rome and Damascus. She then studied Italian and English in Munich, worked as a translator and court interpreter, and began writing. Since 2007, her novels have regularly appeared on the SPIEGEL bestseller list. She is known for her thorough research: she visits the locations of her novels, talks to witnesses and those affected, and incorporates their voices into her stories. Her books deal with extremism, radical worldviews, and family secrets; she tells stories of mothers, children, and loss—an motif from her family history. Refreshments will be served before the event, no break. Book sales by the bookstore "lesb@r" and the opportunity for signing by the author. Please use parking at the festival hall.

Highlights

• Reading by Anja Jonuleit
• Theme: Coming to terms with the past and war crimes
• Location: Nonnenbachschule, Kressbronn am Bodensee

General Information

The reading by Anja Jonuleit presents her new novel "Where the Wind Bears the Names," which will be published on 25.03.2026. The event addresses the processing of guilt and crimes in the Lüneburg Heath and takes place at the Nonnenbachschule.

Location

Schulweg 10, 88079 Kressbronn am Bodensee, Germany

Hide Map

Loading map...

How to get there

Get Directions