About the work
Und Federn überall is the stage adaptation of Nava Ebrahimi's novel of the same name, published by Luchterhand Literaturverlag in August 2025. The first stage version was written by the director Heiko Dietz, who also staged its world premiere at the Munich theatre “theater ... und so fort” in March 2026. The novel brings together themes such as migration and flight, economic pressure, automation and life in the provinces.
Plot
The story is set in Lasseren, a fictional small town in Emsland whose daily life revolves around a huge poultry slaughterhouse, and it unfolds over a single Monday. It centres on six people: Sonia, a single mother looking for a better job; Anna, a young engineer testing an automation process at the plant; a manager in process optimisation whose wife has left him; Nassim, a blind Afghan poet hoping for asylum; Justyna, a Polish woman twenty years his senior with whom he has an affair; and Roshi, a German-Iranian writer who translates his poems into German. When a cyclist damages Nassim's white cane, he becomes known around town, and the six lives begin to collide.
Cultural significance
The novel was longlisted for the German Book Prize in 2025, won the Péter Horváth Literature Prize and was praised by critics at Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau and Deutschlandfunk, above all for its skilful interweaving of perspectives. The Munich premiere of the stage version also received a favourable review in the Abendzeitung.