Michaela Kohlhaas

»His sense of justice made him into a robber and a murderer.« That’s how Heinrich von Kleist describes the horse dealer Michael Kohlhaas in his eponymous novella, a man who goes on a bloody rampage of revenge after suffering an act of injustice. Two hundred years later, his actions serve as inspiration and instruction for Michaela Kohlhaas: an aggrieved assistant manager of a cemetery. Driven by her own experience of injustice and powerlessness, she decides to rebel. But whereas Michael Kohlhaas murders and pillages, Michaela acts primarily with words: with exaggeration, swearing, sabotage, and show. Like a supposed witch, she drifts through the countryside cursing and cussing. And she comes to the conclusion that being a woman is all downsides. Resisting also has its downsides. But even though the whole world declares her mad, she continues toward her end »with flags waving«, hoping for a happy end but sensing that she might not be so lucky.

Heike Geißler’s Michaela Kohlhaas is a daring rewriting of the famous novella by Heinrich von Kleist. Where society expects women to slowly recede from public view after a certain age, growing quieter, fainter, smaller, Geißler's heroine refuses to fade away. Her Michaela is a cursing, stinking, yet delicate figure. A woman who loves deeply and who doesn’t just want improvement – she wants compensation and atonement. And an entirely different way of organising the world.

»The book of the hour!« Denis Scheck

»›Michaela Kohlhaas‹ is great theatre. A revolution in thoughts, with language following on its tiptoes.« Paul Jandl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

»Geißler’s own skill with words, her feel for striking images, her clear vision of irresolvable evil all come together to form a work of capital L Literature.« Judith von Sternburg, Frankfurter Rundschau

»The directness of Geißler’s language lives from its wit and dialectical tension … A brilliant novel.« Nina Mueller, wochentaz

»This novel is brilliant … because Geißler does not name any specific injustice that has been inflicted on Michaela Kohlhaas.« Martin Gasser, Kleine Zeitung

»The novel consists in the flickering appearance of a character who has committed herself to unconditional protest, and in a plea for not having to accept the world the way it is.« Martin Gasser, Hamburger Morgenpost

»In a language that takes its beauty from its density and conclusiveness, Heike Geißler transforms the material into a performance that is at times absurd. The fate of Michaela Kohlhaas is consequential and yet improbable, at once nightmarish and exhilarating.« Janina Fleischer, Leipziger Volkszeitug

»The book is written in a confident style … creating a flittering, oscillating tension between pathos and the everyday, and this orchestrates the peculiar character of Kohlhaasian resistance.« Enno Stahl, Deutschlandfunk

»A revitalisation of Kleist’s classic for the present day!« NDR