Literature
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Interview with author Dogan Akhanli
"The tradition of looking the other way"
Published in German, Dogan Akhanli's novel "Madonna's Last Dream" pays homage to Sabahattin Ali’s classic "Madonna in a Fur Coat" – as well as being a narration of the crimes of the 20th century from the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust through to the refugee stories of our time. Gerrit Wustmann spoke to the Cologne-based author
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Imprisoned Turkish writer Ahmet Altan
Literature is more powerful than tyranny
Unable to travel to Munich to attend the presentation ceremony for his Geschwister-Scholl Prize, writer Ahmet Altan penned a message against hatred and nationalism from his prison cell in Turkey. Read out by his close friend Yasemin Congar, it formed his acceptance speech
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Smear campaign against Turkish author Asli Erdogan
"The things I didn’t say"
The Turkish author Asli Erdogan has been living in Germany for the past two years. In Turkey, she is still on trial. Now a wrongly-translated interview has triggered a smear campaign against her. Gerrit Wustmann spoke to her
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Interview with writer Guy Helminger about Yemen
No ulterior motives, just tea
Since 2015, war has been raging in Yemen – a country about which people in Europe know astonishingly little. Cologne-based writer Guy Helminger visited Yemen in 2009, six years before hostilities began. He describes his experience in his book "Die Lehmbauten des Lichts" (Clay buildings of light). Interview by Gerrit Wustmann
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Interview with Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar
Bridging the gap between outrage and fear
The renowned Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar writes in his poems about origin, religion – especially Islam, spirituality, the American dream and much more. Interview by Schayan Riaz
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Interview with Indonesian author and feminist Feby Indirani
"God is my partner in crime"
Described by some as a Muslim feminist, Feby Indirani’s writing is daring and light-hearted at once. Her collection of short stories – "Bukan Perawan Maria" – recently translated into Italian, parodies the inconsistencies of radical Islam and orthodoxy, while seeking to emphasise the humanity we all share. Interview by Naima Morelli
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Book review: Ismail Fahd Ismail’s "The Old Woman and the River"
Hemingway, eat your heart out!
Part desert-island novel, part war story, part ‘Don Quixote’ and part folktale, the last novel by Kuwaiti writer Ismail Fahd Ismail (1940-2018) brings us the Iran-Iraq war through the eyes of a wise old fool. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
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Iraqi author Usama Al Shahmani
ʺIn foreign lands, the trees speak Arabicʺ
Usama Al Shahmani fled Iraq in 2002 and has since become a wanderer between worlds. He taught himself German and now works as a translator and cultural mediator in Switzerland. In his novel, he describes how hiking helped him process the loss of his homeland. By Volker Kaminski
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Book review: Stefan Weidner's ʺ1001 Books. The Literatures of the Orientʺ
The Middle East – a rich vein of world literature
Recently published in German, Stefan Weidner's new book issues an invitation to all those who would like to be better acquainted with the literature of the Middle East – a profoundly fascinating journey through the works of Arab, Persian and Turkish authors. By Gerrit Wustmann
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Book review: Ibtisam Azem's "The Book of Disappearance"
We woke to find them gone
In her latest novel, "The Book of Disappearance", Palestinian author Ibtisam Azem strikes a nerve with a fantastical tale that simultaneously fascinates and moves the reader, presenting the moral drift that can set in when people are confronted with the insoluble. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book
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Interview with Carlos Spottorno and Guillermo Abril
"The Crack": Europe's identity crisis
In their field journal “The Crack” photographer Carlos Spottorno and journalist Guillermo Abril report the unfolding of Europeʹs migrant crisis from Africa to the Arctic over the course of three years. Their aim? To identify the causes and consequences of Europeʹs identity crisis. Interview by Naima Morelli
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Non-fiction: "War in Syria. Resolving a global conflict"
Refuting the populist mantra "Syrians go home"
Middle East expert Kristin Helberg has published an authoritative book on Syria. In it, she explains why the conflict there is by no means over. In her home country of Germany, however, the Syrian debate is short on hard facts and more often than not clouded by populist repatriation fantasies. By Rene Wildangel