Archive · 27 Oct 2025
International Booker Prize Winner: 'Kairos' Explores Love and Loss
This book, "Kairos," won an award!
It's about a young woman, Katharina, who falls in love with an older, married man named Hans.
Their relationship happens during a big change in Germany, when the Berlin Wall was coming down.
The story shows their happy times but also the tough parts, like arguments and misunderstandings.
It explores how their different ages and the changing world around them affect their love.
It's like watching two people navigate love, with all its ups and downs, while history is happening all around them.
"Kairos" by Jenny Erpenbeck won the 2024 International Booker Prize.
The story follows Katharina, 19, and Hans, 53, and their relationship during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The relationship dynamic shifts from tender to strained, marked by power imbalances.
The book highlights how external political shifts impact the couple's relationship.
It examines themes of love, loss, and the influence of age and memory.
- Who
- Katharina and Hans, and those impacted by their relationship.
- What
- Exploration of a relationship marked by age difference and set against the fall of the Berlin Wall.
- When
- Late 1980s and early 1990s.
- Where
- Germany, particularly within the context of the Berlin Wall.
- Why
- To explore the complexities of love, power dynamics, and the impact of socio-political events on personal relationships.
- Book Title
- Kairos
- Author
- Jenny Erpenbeck
- Translator
- Michael Hofmann
- Setting
- Late 1980s/Early 1990s Germany
- Major Theme
- Relationship during socio-political change