Lesung Mechtild Borrmann aus "Lebensbande"

On Wednesday, October 14, 2026, bestselling author Mechtild Borrmann will read from her contemporary historical novel "Lebensbande" starting at 7:00 p.m.

About "Lebensbande"

Contemporary history meets the intertwined fates of three women:
Bestselling author Mechtild Borrmann tells in her major contemporary historical novel "Lebensbande" the life stories of three women whose destinies intersect between World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

From World War II to the fall of the Wall, the threads of fate connect Lene, Nora, and Lieselotte: Although they meet as strangers in a time of fear and terror, they become friends who support each other and take great risks. Nurse Nora does everything to help Lene save the life of her little son Leo. Because of a slight handicap, Leo is considered a "Reichsausschuss child." In 1942, Nora meets Lieselotte in Danzig. Three years later, the women are deported to a Soviet gulag – as part of the 900,000 laborers promised to Stalin, among other things, as part of reparations. When Adenauer begins in 1949 to buy these Germans back, Lieselotte gives up everything she has left to enable Nora's return to her homeland. Many years later, shortly after the fall of the Wall, Nora receives a disturbing letter that abruptly catapults her back into the past...

Author Mechtild Borrmann

Mechtild Borrmann, born in 1960, spent her childhood and youth in the Lower Rhine region. Before making a name for herself as a writer, she worked among other things as a dance and theater educator and in gastronomy. The author has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes, including the German Crime Prize. Her novels "Trümmerkind," "Grenzgänger," and "Feldpost" have remained on the TOP 10 of the Spiegel bestseller list for months. Mechtild Borrmann lives as a freelance writer in Bielefeld.