Book Reading
by Becky Tan

For one whole day well-known German actors and film makers read sections from Machloikes, Michel Bergmann’s newest book. The word comes from Yiddish and means disorder, antagonism and dispute. This is an amusing story in 1953 Frankfurt about a Jewish rug dealer, Robert Frönkel, and a 14-year-old boy named Alfred. All is well and then the Machloikes begins. Bergmann was born in 1945 of Jewish parents who fled to Switzerland. He was a journalist for the Frankfurter Rundschau. Since then he has worked as a film director, producer and script writer. He teaches script writing at the Berlin film school.