Sophia Klink: Kuril Lake

The exciting and linguistically brilliant debut novel by Sophia Klink: Climate change and overfishing threaten the salmon stocks of Lake Kuril. Fascinated by the magical wilderness of Kamchatka, biologist Anna tries to save what can be saved. Every summer, biologist Anna spends time at the Russian research station on Lake Kuril, deep in the wilderness of Kamchatka. She takes water samples, counts salmon and phytoplankton. Climate change threatens the fish stocks, and the research team is to make a recommendation: for or against phosphate fertilization of the lake. Anna loves the beauty of Kurilskoye, her excursions with Vova, who knows every bear by name, the evenings by the campfire with Yulia, whose publication list is as intimidating as her drinking toasts, and the discussions with her boss Fjeodor, who attracts the discontent of the women at the station. Anna fears that fertilization could throw the entire ecosystem out of balance. And yet, without human intervention, Lake Kuril will never be the same again – by the end of summer, they must make a decision. In Sophia Klink's debut, the rational language of science and emotional observations of nature overlap like lenses; through her poetic lens, the microcosm of Lake Kuril appears in multiple magnifications, making global phenomena such as climate warming and dwindling salmon stocks tangible. Together with Klink's perception-shaping language and the psychologically thrilling character constellation, "Kurilensee" becomes a literary adventure, an exciting variation of nature writing, sharpening the awareness of the planet's threats, the ambivalences of science, and the beauty of nature. The evening will be moderated by Carolin Contomichalos. Sophia Klink, born in Munich in 1993, studied biology and earned her doctorate on the symbiosis between bacteria and plants. She has been awarded the Munich Literature Scholarship and the Wolfgang Weyrauch Promotion Prize at the Literary March, and has received scholarships from the British Council and the Foundation for Art and Nature. She was a finalist at the open mike event, a resident scholar at the Roger Willemsen Foundation, the Adalbert Stifter Association, and Villa Sarkia in Finland. In spring 2025, her poetry debut will be published by hochroth Munich. Inspired by a research stay at the White Sea in Russia for her novel "Kurilensee," she was shortlisted for the W.-G.-Sebald Prize with an excerpt from it. The author lives in Munich.