Born in São Paulo in 1937, Bernardo Kucinski was a professor of journalism at the University of São Paulo until 2012. During the first legislative period of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2002–2006), Kucinski was his advisor on press issues. During the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964–1985), Kucinski went into exile in London, where he worked, among other places, for the BBC. In 1974 he returned to Brazil after his sister Ana Rosa Kucinski was abducted.

His novel K., which has been translated into many different languages, is based on the disappearance of his sister. At the same time, by focusing on the Kucinski family, it focuses on Polish-Jewish and Brazilian history of the 20th century. The father of the author, Majer Kucinski, who was born in 1904 in Włocławek, Poland, emigrated to São Paulo in 1933. In the novel, the term “enforced disappearance” is used in connection with the initials K. and A., referring to the father and his missing daughter. Using initials instead of full names, help makes it clear that the novel is not only the story of a single family, but a collective destiny. The perpetrators are given names.

Bernardo Kucinski will read from the original Brazilian text, and his German translator Sarita Brandt will read from the translation published by Transit-Verlag. The event is being organized in cooperation with the Simon Dubnow Institute in Leipzig.