Kairos

Published in 2021, Kairos is a historical novel by German writer Jenny Erpenbeck. A celebrated author of four novels, Erpenbeck set out to write a book about an intimate love story against the backdrop of a larger political system on the brink of collapse. The novel was translated from its original German into English by Michael Hofmann in 2023. The subsequent year, it was declared the winner of the International Booker Prize. Kairos was also the recipient of the 2022 Uwe Johnson Prize.

The novel focuses on the troubling affair between Hans, a middle-aged writer, and Katharina, a young graphic artist, during the final years of East Germany and the German reunification from 1986 to 1992. The inquisitive Katharina presents an appealing alternative to Hans’s disinterested family, but when Katharina has a brief affair with a man closer to her own age during an internship in Frankfurt, the foundations of her relationship with Hans are shaken, setting off a years-long breakdown that continues to impact Katharina even after Hans dies. Erpenbeck uses the novel to discuss The Politics of Transgression and Atonement, Identity and Power in the Context of Romantic Love, and The Generational Divide Against the Backdrop of History.

This guide is based on the paperback edition of the Michael Hofmann translation published by New Directions Books in 2024.

Content Warning: The source material and this study guide contain depictions of emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, and pregnancy loss.

Plot Summary

In East Berlin, July 1986, Hans, a middle-aged writer, and Katharina, a 20-year-old aspiring design artist, meet by chance on the bus. They are immediately drawn to one another, though Hans attempts to maintain discretion given the wide age gap between them and the fact that he is married. He longs for Katharina’s company when she travels to Budapest. Katharina in turn exhibits curiosity toward everything Hans shares with her, seeing him as a mentor who can initiate her into the cultural history of East Germany. Their mutual interest in each other causes their affair to grow increasingly passionate.

Katharina is approved to visit her relatives in West Germany, where she gets her first experience of life outside the Eastern Bloc. Due to her culture shock, Katharina returns to Hans with increased boldness. At Hans’s urging, their sex life becomes increasingly complex, involving BDSM play (bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism) that Katharina has never experienced before and that highlights the growing power differential between them. Katharina is deeply in love with Hans and dreams of having his children. Katharina wants Hans to divorce his wife, Ingrid. Hans is reluctant to do so, however, because of Ingrid’s impact on his daily life. Ingrid nevertheless discovers the affair between Hans and Katharina and throws her husband out. Although this means that he can start living with Katharina without the need for discretion, Hans remains married to Ingrid, unable to choose between the two women. He eventually moves back into his apartment with his family while Katharina moves to Frankfurt to begin a stage design internship.

In Frankfurt, Katharina enjoys her newfound independence. She becomes close to one of her colleagues, an assistant designer named Vadim. To assert his control over their relationship, Hans stages a breakup while visiting Katharina. This drives Katharina to stage an unofficial wedding with Hans, assuring him of her devotion. Nevertheless, Katharina returns to Frankfurt, where she spends more time in Vadim’s apartment and eventually has sex with him. Hans discovers the affair when he finds Katharina’s written recollection of the encounter.

Hans engages Katharina in a brutal campaign of cross-examination, during which he criticizes her intentions and identity in several recorded cassette tapes. Katharina abandons her internship and submits herself to Hans, though she is both broken down by the severity of his criticism and more in love with him than ever. She writes replies to Hans’s tapes to defend herself and aid in the renewal of their relationship. Over time, their relationship begins to regain some of its previous warmth, though Katharina remains suspicious of whether this tenderness is authentic or merely performed for her.

Hans and Katharina travel to Moscow to celebrate their honeymoon. During the trip, Hans reflects on the violence of his childhood and his rebellion against his fascist father. When they return to Berlin, Hans continues his cross-examination of Katharina, whose self-esteem is worn down to the point of suicidal ideation. Katharina is accepted to art school, where she begins an affair with a classmate named Rosa. Soon, Katharina resigns herself to the interpretation that Hans hates her, which changes his attitude. Although Hans behaves tenderly toward her, Katharina can no longer trust the sincerity of his affections. This triggers the immediate return of his cross-examination and the cassette tapes.

Protests break out against the East German government, and the state of the nation is exacerbated by the opening of borders, the mass exodus of East Germans to the west, and finally, the 1990 general elections that result in the abolition of East Germany. Hans and Katharina try to resist the temptation of assimilation, but they cannot help being integrated into the new state that arises from the ashes of Socialist Germany. Hans loses his job as a freelance radio scriptwriter and resigns himself to his fate in a Germany that stands against everything he believes in. Katharina uses her freedom of movement to travel across Europe, where she exercises her sexual agency at her discretion. This culminates in the pregnancy she has with a German sculptor named Robert. Hans desperately tries to claim the child as his own, but Katharina willingly denies him. The baby dies stillborn and Hans and Katharina experience a definitive separation.

The novel ends after Hans dies, with Katharina receiving two boxes that contain the keepsakes of their relationship. Through an information request, Katharina learns that Hans had been a collaborator of the East German secret police, the Stasi, a role in which he had caused the incarceration of many cultural workers in postwar East Germany. When she realizes that Hans had ended his Stasi collaboration before their trip to Moscow, Katharina concludes that Hans wanted the same thing that she always did: to be known fully by each other.