Looking where judgment becomes difficult.
Reading with Florian Klenk
When Florian Klenk reads, the focus is on reality, guilt, and the limits of our own judgment. In this reading, the lawyer, investigative journalist, and editor-in-chief of Falter presents his book Excuses. Elfriede Blauensteiner – A Confession – a documentary self-testimony that confronts, unsettles, and lingers long after it is heard.
Based on interviews, transcripts, and expert reports, the book gives voice to a woman whose story is difficult to endure. Klenk provides context, maintains distance, and yet allows the language to speak for itself. The result is a text that does not explain so much as it confronts – challenging common ideas of guilt, responsibility, and empathy.
An evening for those who see literature not as entertainment, but as an invitation to face uncomfortable truths. For listeners willing to look closely – held within the calm, focused atmosphere of Refugium.
As part of our literary cycle, selected authors are welcomed as guests at Refugium. Curated by Petra Hartlieb, who has accompanied us from the very beginning with her fine sense for voices, themes, and remarkable books, the series brings together writers whose works touch, surprise, or simply wish to be told – each in their own distinctive way.
Those who wish can combine the reading with a stay: time for conversation, for retreat, or for a good book that continues to resonate.
