Literature: “What are they afraid of?”

Daniel Kehlmann's acclaimed novel "Lichtspiel" has just been published in English – which is why his British colleague Ian McEwan is asking him some really big questions in London. He also asks how the author feels about his adopted home, the USA.

Writers wear socks too; readers only realize this when they see them sitting on stage. What no portrait photo shows becomes clear on that Wednesday evening in the residence of the German embassy in London : Ian McEwan , otherwise dressed in a dignified intellectual's uniform, is wearing black and yellow stripes underneath. Next to him, dressed from head to toe in confident black, is Daniel Kehlmann . His book "Lichtspiel" has recently been published in English under the title "The Director". He takes the opportunity to allow his British colleague to interview him in front of an audience, far from home, and also far from his adopted home of New York, and in English too. Such settings often have something relaxing about them. The hour then turns out to be enlightening and even amusing. A few things are clarified along the way.