Author Anna Speark tells a harrowing story of the struggles for existence in Prekaria

The story is also about power and bullying in perilous circumstances. “Stampede in Precaria”. Here, too, the reader feels so close to reality that the literary text seems to fall by the wayside. It becomes clear: at the bottom, the fights for the most intense are rarely fair.

At one point, she says, “it turns out once again that social work is increasingly becoming a pool of unemployed academics.” Women with PhDs are hired far below their level of performance. Enough humiliation, one might think. But there are also entirely new ways to insult people and take them off their emotional path. Anna Speark explains that it is not the managerial position that defines a person, but the person who determines how that position is to be filled.

Your third story is about two scientists. Antonia and Tony in short, Lutz and their twelve-year-old daughter Svenia. Both are Ph.D. historians. Two scholars, as a cartoonist, could not portray him better: non-worldly, talented and constantly striving for their financial existence. But it’s not that unworldly either, because the two don’t live together for tax reasons. It is possible that the Brikarians of the Speark troupe are accustomed to poor living conditions and – like the artist – live a rather modest life.

But there is one thing the author, who was born in Olsnitz in 1974 and has studied ethnology, religious studies, Central Asian studies and computer science, wants to get rid of one thing: we live in a competitive society that only leads us to believe. Anyone can do it if they just want to. Failure is not to choose. An entire generation in academic circles can plan no more than a month in advance and yet dare to dream of dedicating a book that only makes sense.