About this Event
In this slim but expansive novel from acclaimed and Giller Prize-shortlisted author Jordan Tannahill, a British archaeologist living in Berlin begins to see his dead lovers in a cruising forest on the city's outskirts. While cruising one evening by Teufelssee, a small glacial lake in the Grunewald forest on the edge of Berlin, a man spots a handsome stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to his former lover. Only, Lukas died nearly thirty years ago. Yet the man cannot shake the feeling that it was really Lukas he saw.
Along with his friends, Gabor and Birgit, the man spends the long, hot summer by the lake, observing the comings and goings of their fellow nudists, as well as their beloved Elsa, a boar who lives along its fringes. He also continues to encounter Lukas, and then other lost lovers as well. As he attempts to make sense of the strange occurrences and learns more of Teufelssee, he finds himself venturing deeper into the mystery of the forest, leading him to question not just his sanity but the nature of time itself.
Written with the lyricism and erudition that have made Jordan Tannahill an internationally celebrated playwright, The Living Realm is a dreamlike novel of epic feeling, and an elegy to the ways our lives become entangled with history, the natural world, and those we love.
Jordan Tannahill is a novelist and playwright. His debut novel, Liminal, received France’s 2021 Prix des Jeunes Libraires. His second novel, The Listeners, was short-listed for the 2021 Giller Prize and adapted into a limited series for the BBC. His most recent play, Prince Faggot, ran off-Broadway for seven months in 2025. He has twice won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, and his work has been presented at venues including the Young Vic Theatre and Sadler’s Wells in London, the Kitchen and Lincoln Center in New York City, and the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Born in Ottawa, he lives in New York City with his husband.
Ben Ladouceur is the author of Otter, winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Prize, finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and selected as a National Post best book of the year, and Mad Long Emotion, winner of the Archibald Lampman Award. He is a recipient of the Writers' Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers and the National Magazine Award for Poetry. His short fiction has been featured in the Journey Prize Stories anthology and awarded the Thomas Morton Prize. He lives in Ottawa.
Event venue & nearby stays
The Spaniel's Tale Bookstore, 1131 Wellington Street West, Ottawa, Canada
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