Discussion | With Iryna Fingerova, Andriy Semjankiw and Ira Teiwes. Moderated by Roksolyana Sviato.

Iryna Fingerova and Andriy Semjankiw are not only writers but also medical professionals. In their novels, medicine offers a distinctive perspective on the human condition – on vulnerability, the choices we make and the limits of what is morally acceptable.

In “Zugwind”, Fingerova tells the story of a doctor of Ukrainian origin in Germany whose medical practice, following the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, becomes a place where stories of displacement, loss and new beginnings converge. Semjankiw’s “Seweryns Tanz mit den Knochen”, by contrast, takes us into the pathology department of a Kyiv hospital, where a doctor is gradually drawn into a downward spiral of financial hardship, illegal dealings and moral transgressions.

A conversation about the body, pain and death, empathy and responsibility – and about what literature can make visible when it gets, both literally and metaphorically, under our skin.

Participants: Iryna Fingerova, Andriy Semjankiw, Ira Teiwes

Moderator: Roksolyana Sviato

Language:  German

Organisers: Federal Agency for Civic Education, Goethe-Institut Ukraine

Location: Ukrainian National Stand, Hall 3.1, Stand C13