Literature
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Book review: "Moon Brow" by Shahriar Mandanipour
The angels of war
Over ten years after the publication of "Censoring an Iranian Love Story", Shahriar Mandanipour's latest novel, "Moon Brow", is now available in German translation. This is a story about the loss of youth, the horrors of war and a land in the iron grip of dictatorship. By Gerrit Wustmann
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Reflecting cultural diversity in publishing
German kidsʹ books need more dark-skinned protagonists
Children’s books shape the way we see the world as we grow up. In recent years calls have been growing for European publishers to reflect the increasing diversity. By Sonja Matheson
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Book review: Habib Tengour's "Le Vieux de la Montagne"
True legends
The French-Algerian poet Habib Tengour delves deep into the Persian Middle Ages, describing a legendary alliance of men that creates a fateful bond between a religious terrorist, a slick power politician and a poetry-writing mathematician. By Volker Kaminski
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Book review: Leila Aboulela's "Bird Summons"
The arc of self-discovery
Interweaving the real with the fantastical, Leila Aboulela's latest book is a lovingly drawn portrait of evolving friendships. Practically co-dependent at the outset, three women embark on a joint pilgrimage, discovering not only that they like each other, but that they also like themselves. Richard Marcus read the book
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Book review: Nava Ebrahimi’s "Das Paradies meines Nachbarn"
The scars of war
War, escape, exile and the question of one’s own identity are central themes in Nava Ebrahimi’s second novel "Das Paradies meines Nachbarn". Gerrit Wustmann read the book
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Contemporary Iranian literature
Reading outside the box
Mullahs, dictatorship, nuclear conflict – Iran could be reduced to these keywords if one were to rely only on the articles in the daily press. But to really understand a country better, you have to study its literature. And Iranian literature is just as diverse as the country itself. By Gerrit Wustmann
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Book review: Mansoura Ez Eldin's novel "Shadow Spectres"
The fantasy of wholeness
Marija M. Bulatovic shares her impressions of "Shadow Spectres" by Mansoura Ez Eldin – recently translated into Serbian by Dragana Dordevic as "Priviđenja iz senke"
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Book review: Shokoofeh Azar's "The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree"
Straight to the heart
With "The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree", Shokoofeh Azar has created a beautiful, sad fable set in a horrible reality. While there are moments of hope to be found in the past and in the realms of magic, they are fiercely trammelled underfoot by the cruelty and harsh realities of the world. Richard Marcus read the book
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Interview with Iraqi author Sinan Antoon
The West and its cliched view of Iraq
Looking outwards with the knowledge from within: a conversation with the Iraqi writer Sinan Antoon on the future of his homeland. Interview by Lena Bopp
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The maqamas of Ibn Naqiya in German translation
The picaresque poet from Baghdad
The "maqama", a classical Arabic form of prose-poetry, is still almost unknown in Germany – as is the name of the 11th-century Baghdad poet Ibn Naqiya. A new translation has the potential to change all that. By Gerrit Wustmann
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Book review: Pajand Soleymani's "Immer mit Zucker"
Bittersweet life
In her novel "Immer mit Zucker" Pajand Soleymani creates a surreal world of cinematic images, intellectual discussion and dreamlike transformation. An unusual reading experience distantly reminiscent of the stories of "One Thousand and One Nights". Volker Kaminski read the book
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Book review: Tawfiq al-Hakim’s "Return of the Spirit"
Awaiting the day of resurrection
In 2019, the long-running Penguin Classics series released its first novel translated from Arabic: Tawfiq al-Hakim’s "Return of the Spirit", conveyed into English by William Hutchins. Al-Hakim wrote his popular novel in Paris in 1927 and published it in Cairo six years later, in 1933. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book