Olivia Laing »Buch der Träume«

A book premiere in the Großer Saal of the Literaturhaus Berlin: author Olivia Laing presents her new novel »Buch der Träume«, in English, with the German passages read by actress Veronika Bachfischer. In conversation with Kathleen Reinhardt, director of the Georg Kolbe Museum and curator of the German Pavilion at the 61. Biennale di Venezia 2026, she speaks about Venice as a place of longing, le belli arti and the novel. The novel tells of a penniless young English artist's encounter with the visionary costume and production designer Danilo Donati, the magician of Italian cinema. The two travel to Rome and surrender themselves to the intoxicating dream world of Cinecittà in Italy's politically tense »Years of Lead« – a hypnotic, captivatingly told novel about power and illusion, loneliness and uncompromising desire.