Book podcast: If one or the other critic has to swallow: Paul Ingendaay talks to Maxim Biller about the craft of writing

Maxim Biller, who was born in Prague in 1960 and has lived in Berlin for a long time, is known as an aggressive journalist and gifted polemicist.

But he is also known as an extremely productive writer who, over a period of around thirty years, has created a wide range of literary works, most recently the novel “The Wrong Greeting”.

What does one Maxim Biller have to do with the other?

And what not?

What's on his mind?

What drives him?

In any case, it is certain that he had a decisive influence on the discussion about Jewish literature in German or about being Jewish in Germany in general.

The volume "Who doesn't believe, writes" (2020) alone, a collection of his essays, speeches and objections from three decades, provides material for numerous talks about Germany - perceptive, provocative and without fear of breaking taboos.

Paul Ingenday

Europe correspondent for the feuilleton in Berlin.

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In the book podcast, I first asked Maxim Biller how he got on with his Heidelberg poetics lectureship four years ago - and whether writing can be taught at all.

Then we roam through his literary production, talk about teachers and companions, influences and opposition, motives and obsessions.

The main book titles of our conversation:

Every Sunday morning, the FAZ books podcast alternately publishes talks about books and topics, interviews with authors, readings, literary puzzles and recitations from the Frankfurt anthology.

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