Ulla Lenze, born in Mönchengladbach in 1973, studied music and philosophy in Cologne. Today she lives in Berlin and works as a freelance writer. Her debut novel Schwester und Bruder (Sister and Brother) (DuMont 2003) received several prizes, including the Ernst Willner award at the Ingeborg Bachmann competition. Ulla Lenze was a writer-in-residence in Damascus, Istanbul, Mumbai and Venice. In 2016, she travelled to North Africa, Iran and Iraq. Her recent novels are “Der kleine Rest des Todes” (What Little Remains of Death) (Frank- furter Verlagsanstalt 2012) and “Die endlose Stadt” (The Endless City) (Frankfurter Verlag- sanstalt 2015). In 2016, she was awarded the prestigious Literary Prize of the Kulturkreis der Deutschen Wirtschaft.

THE ENDLESS CITY

Holle Schulz is a visual artist, who photographs cities, or to be precise: architectural ensem- bles that are absent, as far as possible, of people. She comes to Istanbul with a fellowship, falling in love not only with the metropolis that straddles Orient and Occident, but with Cel- al, owner of a kebab shop. At the same time, she feels drawn toward the rich German build- ing contractor Christoph Wanka, who is fascinated by her work. What connects her with him is, in a sense, a reluctant intellectual resonance. For he embodies everything she despises – the unscrupulous elegance of the “new colonizers” in a world where capitalism has dissolved all borders. He pays for her stay in Mumbai, which she abruptly breaks off, when she feels pressured by her benefactor. She sublets her apartment to the German journalist Theresa, who like Holle is alert to the crass contradictions of life in exploding urban areas such as Istanbul and Mumbai. Theresa, too, will meet Christoph Wanka ...

Ulla Lenze artfully interconnects the destinies of four people, who live in a world of cities which seem to merge into one another in a more and more confusing way, in a world where art, love, and life have lost their innocence, but nevertheless one continues to constantly struggle for them.