Ein Berliner Sommer, drei Paare und die Frage, wie wir leben wollen
VERENA GÜNTNER
Medulla
A Novel, 256 pages
Autumn 2025
An up-to-the-minute novel suffused with radical physicality
A swan song to heteronormative relationships that is as funny as it is perceptive
“Güntner dismantles gendered expectations with subtle language.”
The Leipzig Book Fair Prize Jury on ‘Power’
Three Couples, a Summer in Berlin, and One Question:
How Do We Want to Live our Lives?
One day by the lake, a woman enters the water. Break out, break away, dive down. Is it Siv, Leyla, or Esther? The lives of these three
women are tightly interwoven. Siv is 40 and at peace with herself. She doesn’t want children – and her feelings don’t change when she unexpectedly falls pregnant. She and
her partner, Jan, live together in an open relationship and he can’t cope with her being the only one who gets to decide how to proceed. Leyla and David have done their utmost to become parents – but then Leyla gets pregnant and wants her body back. She finds an unexpected ally in Siv. Esther, Leyla’s work colleague, is also having a baby. Her
partner Jacob has been preparing for his new role as father fastidiously, but instead of taking him along to her gynaecologist’s
appointments, she opts to take Lem, a man she hardly knows.
This is the story of three women uncompromisingly resisting attempts made by men to control their bodies. In the process, they become closer to one another than they ever intended. Written with literary precision, power, and humour, Verena Güntner’s MEDULLA weaves a tale of relationships, sex, longing, sisterhood, and the burning desire to lead a free, radically independent life.
Medulla
A Novel, 256 pages
Autumn 2025
An up-to-the-minute novel suffused with radical physicality
A swan song to heteronormative relationships that is as funny as it is perceptive
“Güntner dismantles gendered expectations with subtle language.”
The Leipzig Book Fair Prize Jury on ‘Power’
Three Couples, a Summer in Berlin, and One Question:
How Do We Want to Live our Lives?
One day by the lake, a woman enters the water. Break out, break away, dive down. Is it Siv, Leyla, or Esther? The lives of these three
women are tightly interwoven. Siv is 40 and at peace with herself. She doesn’t want children – and her feelings don’t change when she unexpectedly falls pregnant. She and
her partner, Jan, live together in an open relationship and he can’t cope with her being the only one who gets to decide how to proceed. Leyla and David have done their utmost to become parents – but then Leyla gets pregnant and wants her body back. She finds an unexpected ally in Siv. Esther, Leyla’s work colleague, is also having a baby. Her
partner Jacob has been preparing for his new role as father fastidiously, but instead of taking him along to her gynaecologist’s
appointments, she opts to take Lem, a man she hardly knows.
This is the story of three women uncompromisingly resisting attempts made by men to control their bodies. In the process, they become closer to one another than they ever intended. Written with literary precision, power, and humour, Verena Güntner’s MEDULLA weaves a tale of relationships, sex, longing, sisterhood, and the burning desire to lead a free, radically independent life.
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Verena Güntner
Verena Güntner, born in 1978 in Ulm, after finishing drama school she spent sev-eral years on stage at different theatres. Her debut novel Es bringen...
Verena Güntner, born in 1978 in Ulm, after finishing drama school she spent sev-eral years on stage at different theatres. Her debut novel Es bringen (2014) was adapted for the stage and has won the German Audiobook Price (Deutscher Hör-buchpreis). Verena Güntner was awarded several prices, amongst others the Kelag-Price at the Bachmann-Competition and the Berlin Senat scholarship. She lives in Berlin.