Mareike Fallwickl reads from "Hold On Tight"

Austrian Premiere! Luzia grows up in a community that offers refuge to very different people. In the house, queer and platonic forms of love as well as shared parenthood are lived out. Later, as an adult, Luzia fights against patriarchal structures as a theater director and tries to change something for the better. Her childhood friend Marle feels a strong desire for children in her early forties and chooses an unusual path away from relationships with men. But suddenly, after a devastating storm, everything that this chosen family has built together over decades seems threatened. What does it take for such a community to survive in times like these?

Mareike Fallwickl made her debut in 2018 with "Dunkelgrün fast schwarz," followed by "Das Licht ist hier viel heller" in 2019. "Die Wut, die bleibt" (2022) was a great success with both the press and the audience, was staged at the Salzburg Festival, and is being adapted for film. "Und alle so still" (2024) reached the Top 10 of the Spiegel bestseller list and is also being staged at various theaters. Mareike Fallwickl lives in the Salzburg region and advocates for literature dissemination both online and offline, focusing on female and diverse narrative voices.

"To write like Mareike Fallwickl takes courage: She looks precisely where it hurts, revealing the oppression of the female gender in poetic, clear language, without resorting to accusation." (Der Standard)

Mareike Fallwickl, Haltet euch fest, Rowohlt, 2026