About the work
“Zwischen Ruhm und Ehre liegt die Nacht” (Between Glory and Honour Lies the Night) is the first collection of stories by the former tennis player Andrea Petković, published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in autumn 2020, while she was still playing on the WTA Tour. The autobiographically rooted stories link professional sport with literature and music. The first stage version was devised by Theresa Thomasberger and Carlotta Huys for the Staatstheater Darmstadt, in the city where Petković grew up; the world premiere, directed by Thomasberger, is scheduled for 17 October 2026 in the Kleines Haus.
Plot
The stories lead from a childhood that begins with the family's flight from Yugoslavia to Germany, through her rise into the world's top ten, to nights in New York. They deal with encounters on court, for instance with Steffi Graf and Ashleigh Barty, with self-doubt and ambition, injuries and the relationship with one's own body in elite sport, with loneliness in hotel rooms, with rivals who become friends, and with an identity divided between Serbia and Germany. The stage version assembles these stories into a theatrical collage.
Cultural significance
The book was received as an unusual literary debut by a top athlete. In Die Zeit, Ijoma Mangold praised its psychological ruthlessness and literary force; in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Gerald Kleffmann called it thoughtful and witty but noted a tendency towards superlatives.