Samuel Benke’s Long-Awaited Debut Novel

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“Samuel Benke confronts fear head-on with the utmost love and devotion!” Ruth-Maria Thomas

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Fall 2015: Jean moved from France to Germany with his family a few years ago and doesn’t really feel at home anywhere. Berlin isn’t Paris; school is unbearable; the boy sitting in front of him isn’t there. While his parents mean well but get lost in their own lives, he feels his way through a year full of changes: a new school, long nights with his best friend Marie, and early morning shifts at a refugee shelter, where headlines turn into faces and names. Jean is searching for love, confusing desire with genuine closeness, and suddenly his parents move to London – and Jean? A year later, he walks through the dark green door of a bistro and, for the first time in a long while, finds himself exactly where he wants to be. Samuel Benke tells the story of coming of age with tender precision, exploring the encounters that pave the way to self-discovery.

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Samuel Benke, born in Berlin, studied social and business communication as well as creative writing in London, Berlin, and Hildesheim. He has worked as an author, editor, and format developer for ARTE, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and Studio Bummens. His writing has appeared in publications such as Die Zeit, Gay Times, and iD Magazine, among others. On social media, Benke shares his thoughts on books with his growing community of over 60,000 followers.

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Ruth-Maria Thomas, born in 1993 and raised in Cottbus, worked as a social worker in youth services. She studied at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. Her debut novel, ›Die schönste Version‹ (2024), was nominated for the German Book Prize, the aspekte Literature Prize, the Buddenbrookhaus Prize, and the German Business Prize, and was awarded the Ulla Hahn Prize. In 2025, the rbb podcast ›Der Bruch – Frauen zwischen Ost und jetzt‹ was released, with Thomas serving as host. Her second novel, ›Die zweitgrößte Liebe‹, was published in the summer of 2026.

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An event presented by Literatur LIVE in cooperation with Gutkind Verlag and Cinema Paris.