The Insomniacs

Some of the people assembled here are full of the joys of spring, others are world-weary, some of them work for insurance companies, some have lost their way; there are women and men, some of them young and others older. All of them are suffering from the same affliction: they cannot sleep at night. They are hoping to find some relief by attending this weekend seminar with a famous sleep researcher, or should we say sleep guru, or even the pope of sleep?

They have travelled from all parts of the country to the Sezkow Estate, quite some distance outside of Berlin, which has been converted into a hotel. The mood is expectant, there is only one problem: the Master has not arrived. Is this meant to be a part of the seminar? Are they being observed? Or are they simply the victims of a scam event, staged to fill the rooms of a run-down hotel? At least the hotel shows itself generous; the owners and their employees serve them with culinary delicacies and fine wines to make their wait more pleasant. The first guests threaten to leave without paying, whilst others are getting into a better and better mood. This is a night when everyone seems to get carried away; each of the participants is confronted with the depths of his soul, whilst some of them are taken far beyond their personal boundaries.

»Ulrike Kolb tells her story with an assurance that is incomparable.«
(Meike Feßmann, Süddeutsche Zeitung)

The Authoress
Ulrike Kolb, born in 1942, now lives in Berlin after having spent many years in Frankfurt am Main working as a freelance writer.