Shortly before the reading I called my mother. She ended the conversation with the remark: “Give my regards to Berlin.” It was strangely enough the first time that it crossed my mind that mother, who was born in Berlin and lived there the first twelve years of her life, had sentimental feelings for the city.
I find audiences in Berlin compared to audiences in other German cities quite difficult.
But the theatre where the reading took place, a cinema actually that used to be a brewery, was beautiful and the interviewer modest and interested at the same time.
Above all I appreciated the bookseller, a man who used to sell jewelry from India and who had met his wife, a dentist, while selling her jewelry on the streets of Mainz.
There is something romantic about selling jewelry from a small suitcase on the streets of Mainz. I give this evening an 8.