Dissident Gardens

Writer Jonathan Lethem reads from sections of his highly-acclaimed novel Dissident Gardens, depicting Miriam Zimmer as a teenager and after first making contact with her estranged father.

Publication 15 May 2014

Writer Jonathan Lethem gives a reading at the second installment of the Academy’s Writers’ Series hosted by Dussmann English Bookshop. Lethem reads from sections of his highly-acclaimed novel Dissident Gardens, depicting Miriam Zimmer as a teenager and after first making contact with her estranged father. An obstinate East German spy not allowed to reenter the US, her father’s interactions with Miriam were mostly reduced to correspondence via written letters and postcards.

Watch the Video

Related content

Fascism’s Lingering: Regime Change and Moral Reckoning

What Theodor Adorno and his Institute for Social Research team learned about the lasting impact of Nazi ideologies on the German psyche in 1950-51.

2 Oct 2026

London Falling

Patrick Radden Keefe’s book on the seedy truths behind glamorous London

29 Sep 2026

Moveable Type and the Early Modern Imaginary

Image reproduction and the Early Modern mental universe

24 Sep 2026

The USA and Europe: Between Alliance and Shared Responsibility

Panel discussion with John R. Bolton, Norbert Röttgen, Ethan Kapstein, and Majid Sattar.

15 Sep 2026
Diese Medieninhalte sind derzeit blockiert.
Um eingebettete Videos oder Social-Media-Beiträge anzuzeigen, erlauben Sie bitte Cookies von externen Medienanbietern in Ihren Datenschutzeinstellungen.