Katharina Volckmer is a writer and journalist based in London. She holds a DPhil in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford. Her first novel The Appointment  was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize. It has been translated into over 15 languages and has been adapted for the stage and radio in several countries. Her writing and journalism has appeared in LitHub, HEAT, Apartamento, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Astra Magazine and others. Her second novel Calls May Be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes (a.k.a Wonderfuck) has been translated into several languages and is now out with The Indigo Press in the UK. It will be published by Two Dollar Radio in the US in September 2025.

All publishing rights are handled by Heidi Warneke at Grasset: hwarneke@grasset.fr

Photo credit: Liz Seabrook

CALLS MAY BE RECORDED

 Published 1 April 2025 The Indigo Press (UK) / Publishing 16 September 2025 by Two Dollar Radio (US) 

Jimmie works in a London call center, fielding complaints from dissatisfied travelers. Concerns range from whether compulsive itching will attract sharks in Mykonos, to the queue at the infinity pools in Maldives, to stray hairs on pillows: “the utterings of people at odds with their own hedonism, holidays made unenjoyable by their own expectations.”

Today is different, Jimmie’s co-worker Elin warns him. Jimmie is on the chopping block, and his boss, Simon, has followed him into the bathroom during an unauthorized break to request an “urgent” meeting. Also, his partner in an illicit bathroom tryst the week before has been promoted from wearing one of the color-coded staff hoodies, to the position of a hoodie-free assistant manager. The mystery caller could ring at any moment, and Jimmie’s cube-neighbor, Wolf, suspects he’s acting even stranger than usual. It could be because he’s wearing his mother’s cheap red lipstick, staring longingly out the sole window in the communal kitchen.

With remarkable dexterity and an acerbic wit, Katharina Volckmer skewers the corporate workplace and watercooler relationships, culminating in an insightful and powerfully moving portrait of loneliness and human connection.

THE APPOINTMENT 

Published 1 September 2020 by Simon & Schuster (US) / 2 September 2020 by Fitzcarraldo Editions

In a well-appointed examination in London, a young woman unburdens herself to a certain Dr Seligman. Though she can barely see above his head, she holds forth about her life and desires, and her struggles with her sexuality and identity. Born and raised in Germany, she has been living in London for several years, determined to break free from her family origins and her haunted homeland.

In a monologue that is both razor-sharp and subversively funny, she takes us on a wide-ranging journey from outre sexual fantasies and overbearing mothers to the medicinal properties of squirrel tails and the enduring legacy of shame. With The Appointment, her audacious debut novel, Katharina Volckmer challenges our notions of what is fluid and what is fixed and injects a dose of Bernhardian snark into contemporary British fiction.

Longlisted for the Rathbone Folio Prize and Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2021

Praise for THE APPOINTMENT:

“A furious comic monologue […] on national shame, family secrets, sex and more with a disregard for propriety worthy of Alexander Portnoy.”— The New York Times

“In this transgressive, darkly funny novel, a German woman living in London launches into an incendiary monologue… [The Appointment] rushes into excruciating territory, asserting that ‘the only true comfort we can find in life is to be free from our own lies.’.” ─ The New Yorker

“The Appointment is reminiscent of a Bernhardian monologue… At once sexy, hilarious, and subversive.” ─ The Paris Review

“A darkly funny untangling of national and sexual identity” ─ The Guardian

“A sharp examination of how today’s young people are affected by Germany’s neurotic relationship with its past. ” ─ The Telegraph

“As dark and brilliant as Naked Lunch. The Appointment is also mesmerisingly beautiful” – Ian McEwan