Programme of the 9th international literature festival berlin 2009

Preliminary events: 

Programme of the 9th international literature festival berlin 

(9.09. to 20.09. 2009) 

Tues, 1.09. at 7pm, Allianz Repräsentanz Berlin 

Kaleidoscope 

“Pariser Platz der Kulturen” with Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) 

PRESENTER: Barbara Wahlster 

The Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer, born in 1923, was an early activist for human rights and 

against Apartheid in South Africa. The author, who lives in Johannesburg, is among the most 

important writers in world literature. During the 27 th “Pariser Platz der Kulturen” she will read from 

Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black and then take part in a personal discussion. Closed event. 

Admission only with prior registration (030 / 3153 5304). 

Tues, 8.09. at 8pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Specials 

WINTER GARDENS 

During the nineties, more than 700,000 young educated men and women left Serbia, which in the 

eyes of the West had become the country of Karadžić and Mladić The Belgrade director Nikita 

Milivojević’s theatre piece, Winter Gardens deals with this “missing generation.” 

Idea, Text and Direction: Nikita Milivojević, Choreography: Amalia Bennett, Music: Dimitros 

Kamarotis, Video: Predrag Miloševic, Set: Mia David, Costumes: Jelena Stokuća. With 

Vladimir Aleksić, Miljan Prljeta, Danijela Ugrenović, Jelena Angelovski, Mariana Aranđelović 

and Peđa Damjanović 

Co-production: Bitef Teatar, La Biennale di Venezia and spielzeit’europa | Berliner Festspiele 

In Serbian with English subtitles. 

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Wed, 9.09. at 6pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Inauguration 

Arundhati Roy (India): Democracy’s failing light 

GREETINGS: Joachim Sartorius, Ulrich Schreiber, INTRODUCTION: Michi Strausfeld, 

MUSIC: Aydar Gaynullin 

In her first, partially biographical novel The God of Small Things, the Indian writer Arundhati Roy 

broke the taboo of forbidden love with an “untouchable,” a person who does not belong to any 

social caste. In 1996, its first year of publication, the book was translated into 32 languages. For 

this work, Roy received the Man Booker Prize for Literature. In 2004, she was awarded the Sydney 

Peace Prize for her work in social campaigns as well as her advocacy of non-violence. Event with 

simultaneous interpretation. Headsets available in the downstairs foyer. 

Wed, 9.09. at 8pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Literatures of the World 

Aleksandar Hemon (Bosnia/USA) 

PRESENTER: Sigrid Löffler, SPEAKER: Frank Arnold 

Hemon’s latest novel Lazarus, portrays the fate of a Jewish immigrant in Chicago, and was 

nominated for the National Book Award. Critics praise Hemon’s texts for their masterful command 

and powerful use of language. His material, articulated at times using exaggerated imagination, 

laconic naiveté, and disrespectful, shocking humour, is predominantly drawn from his experiences 

as a Serbo-Croatian immigrant: his hybrid identity is suppressed in the distant, surreal past of the 

expatriate and the foreignness of a new homeland. 

Wed, 9.09. at 8pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Focus Arab World 

Poetry Night I 

PRESENTER: Silke Behl SPEAKERS: Margarita Broich and Friedhelm Ptok 

Nujum Al-Ghanem (United Arab Emirates). Like many poets of the younger generation, she writes 

her short poems in so-called “free verse,” a clear readable style which is primarily used to write 

about themes of love and desire. 

Joumana Haddad (Lebanon). Occasionally experimental in her means of expression, her poems 

often deal with the themes of equal rights and female desire. She writes temperamental, sensual 

short stories, and is the editor of Body magazine. 

Abed Ismael (Syria). Ismael has published five collections of his poetry to date. He is trying, in his 

own words, to “rehabilitate illusions […], to glorify deception as one of the forms of freedom.” 

Moncef Mezghanni (Tunisia). His poems are short and the language sparse. Mezghanni’s 

popularity is largely due to the way he performs his poems, making them seem like sound poetry. 

Ghassan Zaqtan (Palestine). His poetry speaks in glowing images of life, death and the everyday 

goings-on in the Palestinian territories, which he describes as a life-long stay in a shunting yard or 

waiting room in light of the unsolved conflict with Israel. 

Wed, 9.09. at 8:30 pm, Collegium Hungaricum 

Focus Arab World_Specials 

Intimacy under construction 

A project by Nora Amin and Gesine Danckwart: Berlandria, Bluephase 2009. 

The theatre and film makers Nora Amin and Gesine Danckwart spent over a year together, at first 

virtually and then on location in Egypt and Germany, researching and developing texts and 

strategies for performance. Objectively personal and vulnerably political, each opens herself to 

questioning by the other about her life and environment. A reading performance and lecture from 

everyday life about work, survival strategies, freedom, and loneliness in East and West. 

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Wed, 9.09. at 8 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Kalaidescope 

Ilma Rakusa 

In her new book Mehr Meer (t: More Sea), Ilma Rakusa approaches her early years in the 50s and 

60s with extreme precision and a lack of sentimentality. In Spiegel Online, Christoph Schröder 

reacted to the passages of memory from a childhood and youth in Central Europe after the second 

world war by calling the work “a book that celebrates the senses and describes boundaries for the 

purpose of breaking them.” 

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Thurs, 10.09. at 4 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Focus Arab World_Reflections 

Sex and Gender 

PRESENTER: Barbara Winckler 

Discussion with Alawiyya Sobh (Lebanon), Rachid Boudjedra (Algeria), Joumana Haddad 

(Lebanon), and Abduh Khal (Saudi-Arabia) 

How are gender roles presented and communicated in Arab literature? Do they reflect traditional 

ideas of men and women, or do they challenge them? What influence can literary depictions have 

on the real world? How many writers – men and women – genuinely have a stance on gender 

politics? These and other questions will be put to the writers and intellectuals during this 

discussion. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided; headsets available in the downstairs 

foyer. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Kulturen der Welt 


A Feast in Exile with Malek Alloula (Algeria) 

PRESENTER: Regina Keil-Sagawe 

Two important aspects of Arab-Berber culture, enjoyment and the gift of hospitality, as well as the 

“enjoyment of text” are the themes of this “literary and culinary feast” with the Algerian writer Malek 

Alloula. The tastes and scents of familiar meals summon the Parisian exile's memories of 

childhood, family and good friends in Algeria. Alloula’s philosophical, essay-like reflections on the 

meaning of eating – even the “eroticism of eating” – will round off the evening . In French, with 

German interpretation. Entry fee €5.00, reduced €3.00. 



Diversity of cultures = Diverse concepts of security? The term ‘security’ in the Western and 

Arab worlds 

What do Western and Arab cultures mean when they talk about “security”? Does the term exist in 

all cultures, or are words like ‘war’ and ‘peace’ more important? What basic requirements must be 

met to make security possible? What role does cultural diversity play in a country with regions of 

crisis and conflict? These and other questions will form the basis of the discussion before we 

address whether and to what degree cultural factors can influence the development of security 

within a country, and how the concrete consideration of cultural aspects can contribute to the 

development of security. In cooperation with the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) 

GmbH. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 7 pm, Babylon 

Kaleidoscope 

Philippe Djian (France) 

PRESENTER: Sigrid Brinkmann SPEAKER: Bibana Beglau 

The provocateur who earned his cult status with Betty Blue will read from his Doggy Bag book 

series. In six episodes, this “soap opera in novel form” turns around a pair of brothers whose 

jealousy and rivalry nearly bring them to bloodshed. Tempo, humour, expensive cars and beautiful 

women: Djian uses lively, sensual, suspense-laden language to reconquer television’s territory for 

literature. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 7 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 

Reflections 

City world – World city I: Mumbai/ Bombay 

Omar Akbar in discussion with Pankaj Mishra (India) 

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Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is inhabited by 20 million people, making it the 5th largest metropolitan 

area in the world. This uncontrollably expanding Moloch fascinates and repels at the same time: 

slums and luxury skyscrapers, 200 different languages, terrorist attacks, street gangs, and also 

Bollywood, the world’s most productive film industry. Pankaj Mishra, socially critical writer, literary 

critic, and essayist, will be discussing Mumbai as an object lesson in the effects of globalisation with 

the urbanist Omar Akbar. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 7 pm, Institut français de Berlin 

Speak, Memory 

Rifa’a al-Tahtawi (Tahta, Egypt 1801 – Egypt 1873) 

INTRODUCTION: Hartmut Diekmann, SPEAKER: Matthias Scherwenikas 

A Muslim discovers Europe: an Egyptian’s journey to Paris in the 19th century. The Egyptian ruler 

Mehmed Ali sends a 40-man strong delegation to Paris in the first half of the 19 th century to study 

science, culture, and the way of life. The travelling students translate teaching materials and 

encyclopaedias into Arabic. Rifa’a al-Tahtawi writes a journal which becomes required reading for 

Egyptian civil servants. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 7 pm, Bibliothek Marzahn / Hellersdorf 

Kaleidoscope 

Otto de Kat (Holland) 

PRESENTER: Martin Jankowski 

“A wonderful novel,” said Cees Noteboom about the 2003 début novel by his fellow Dutchman Otto 

de Kat. Three years later, the historical novel Man on the Move (English publication, 2009) is about 

an adventurous journey through Africa and Southeast Asia: the book won the Dutch Halewijn Prize 

for Literature. Admission is free. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Kamila Shamsie (Pakistan/ Great Britain) 

PRESENTER: Bernhard Robben, SPEAKER: Jutta Lampe 

Nagasaki, the 9th of August, 1945: Hiroko stands on her terrace, wearing a Kimono with three black 

cranes printed on the back and contemplating her upcoming wedding. Then the atom bomb falls. 

Only the shadows of the three cranes, burned into her skin, remain as a memory of everything she 

loved. She searches for a new beginning in Delhi and falls in love with an Indian man, Sajjad. Burnt 

Shadows − short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 − is a sweeping, epic novel which 

follows the lives of both families for over half a century. Event with simultaneous interpretation. 

Headsets available in the downstairs foyer. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side stage 

Poetry Night ll 

PRESENTER: Silke Behl, SPEAKER: Astrid Gorvin 

Fadhil Al-Azzawi (Iraq). His ironic, humorous stories and reviews are published in numerous 

Arabic literary journals. Al-Azzawi has lived in Berlin since 1983. 

Coral Bracho (Mexico) was born in Mexico City in 1951. Bracho’s lyrical work is acknowledged to 

be one of the cornerstones of Mexican poetry. Her characteristic style was already apparent in her 

début collection, Peces de piel fugaz (1977, t: Fish with fleeting skin). Her second collection El ser 

que va a morir (1982, t: The being that will die) won Bracho the Premio Nacional de Poesía de 

Aguascalientes. Bracho lives in Mexico City. 

Gerhard Falkner (Germany) has received numerous prizes, including the Bavarian 

Staatsförderpreis, the Peter-Huchel Prize, and the Kranichsteiner Prize for Literature. This 

November he will be awarded the August-Graf-von-Platen Prize for Literature for his novella Bruno 

(2008). 

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Nora Iuga (Romania) was born into an artistic family in Bucharest in 1931. She grew up in many 

different places, including Germany, Belgium, and Holland, as well as in the Romanian capital and 

in Sibiu in Transylvania. She established herself over a period of years as a major voice in 

Romanian poetry. She was awarded the Friedrich-Gundolf Prize in 2007 for the mediation of 

German culture. Her most recently published work in German was the selection Gefährliche 

Launen (t: Dangerous Moods). 

Thurs, 10.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Arab Booker Prize 2009 

Youssef Ziedan (Egypt) 

PRESENTER: Stefan Weidner, SPEAKER: Roland Schäfer 

Ziedan, director of the department of manuscripts at the famed Bibliotheca Alexandrina, won the 

International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2009, the Arab Booker Prize, for his second novel Azâzîl’ (t: 

Beelzebub). A 5 th century Christian monk documents his life, plagued by doubts about the new 

church, which is acting with violence against people of other faiths, and the conflict between God 

and his own “Beelzebub.” The journey takes us to Jerusalem, Alexandria and Aleppo. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 8 pm, Stiftung Brandenburger Tor 


Aleksandar Hemon (Bosnia/USA) 

PRESENTER: Wilfried F. Schoeller, SPEAKER: Frank Arnold 

Josef Pronek is surprised by the Bosnian war whilst in America. Unable to return home, he tries to 

find a place for himself in this new country, a country he can’t understand. Aleksander Hemon’s 

novel Nowhere Man is about the fear and loneliness of an uprooted man who no longer knows 

where he belongs. No-one, wrote Andreas Breitenstein in the NZZ, has described the “badlyventilated 

reality of the Eastern Bloc” better than Hemon in this “virtuoso” story. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 8:30 pm, Institut français de Berlin 

Specials 

Oulipo: Le Tellier, Roubaud, Monk, Forte, Salon, Bénabou (France) 

PRESENTER: Jürgen Ritte 

The Oulipo writer’s group − Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (“workshop for potential literature”) − 

was founded by François Le Lionnais und Raymond Queneaus in 1960. Their goal is to expand the 

possibilities of language through the use of formal constraints. The “Oulipians” are coming together 

at this year’s ilb to present their philosophy of literary language mathematics − and to read. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 8:30 pm, Maxim Gorki Theater / Studio stage 

Speak, Memory 

Friedrich Rückert (Schweinfurt 1788 – Coburg 1866) 

INTRODUCTION: Hartmut Diekmann, SPEAKER: Roland Schäfer 

The transformations of Abu Seid of Serug, or the Maqamas of Hariri. Giant-sized, attired in artist’s 

black, with flowing blond tresses, Friedrich Rückert was a striking apparition in Rome, Vienna and 

Berlin. But it was the district of Neuses in Coburg that he made the focal point of his life’s journey – 

and the Orient. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Gabriele von Arnim in conversation with Arundhati Roy (India) 

She is a thorn in the side of India’s elites: less for her bestselling novel The God of Small Things 

(which earned Roy charges for undermining public morals) than for her political activism. She has 

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written essays warning against the construction of the Indian atom bomb, condemned extra-judicial 

legal police executions, joined in the fight against the Narmada dam, and protested the military 

operations in Afghanistan, which she sees as furthering the interests of multinational corporations. 

The terrorist attacks on Mumbai were the subject of her latest article. She describes writing as 

“feeling the pulse, the exposed nerve.” Event with simultaneous interpretation. Headsets available 

in the downstairs foyer. 



Reality, Fiction, History: On Youssef Ziedan’s Beelzebub 

Discussion with Youssef Ziedan (Egypt), Hassan Khader (Palestine) and Marie-Claude 

Souaid-Hesse (Lebanon) 

PRESENTER: Stefan Weidner 

The crossing of boundaries and the contacts in the tense relationship between truth and fiction are 

a formative element in historical fiction. This was also evident in the public controversy triggered by 

ZIedan’s novel Azâzîl (t: Beelzebub), which depicts brutality and amorality in the history of the 

Coptic church. This event includes simultaneous interpretation. Headsets available in the 

downstairs foyer. 


Kaleidoscope 

Katharina Hacker (Germany) in discussion with George Szirtes (Hungary/Britain) 

“Truth alone is demanded of poetry,” says Szirtes. In a conversation with Katharina Hacker, the 

poet will discuss his rich body of work and his life, divided between Hungary, where he was born in 

1948, and Britain, where he and his parents fled to in 1956. This split literary identity and the 

experience of being forced to leave his homeland have influenced his poetry. 


Kaleidoscope 

Jakob Hein (Germany) MUSICIAN: Elis 

“It took less than twenty seconds for me to fall in love with Sarah.” In Liebe ist ein hormonell 

bedingter Zustand (love is a hormonally-caused condition), the author Jakob Hein, born in Leipzig 

in 1971, narrates the tragicomedy of a steadfast man. The touchingly inexperienced Sascha loves 

the ladies…if only they would love him back! About East German discos, the last years of the GDR 

and the embarrassments of growing up. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 8pm, Hygienemuseum Dresden 

Kalaidescope 

Robert Gray (Australia) 

The Australian author Robert Gray will read poems from his collection Schwindendes Licht (t: 

Fading Light). His poems impress with their exact imagery, rhythmic individuality and precise 

rendering of spiritual states, without ever drifting into pathos. He will present his family 

autobiography, The Land I Came Through Last. 

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Fri, 11.09. at 3 pm, JSA Berlin 

Specials_Literature Behind Bars 


Wilfried N’Sondé (Germany/Congo) discusses his award-winning début novel Das Herz der 

Leopardenkinder (2007, t: The Heart of the Leopard’s Children) with incarcerated youths. Closed 

event. Registration by fax: 030 27 87 86 85 

Fri, 11.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Specials 



The Oulipo writer’s group − Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (“workshop for potential literature") − 


possibilities of language through the use of formal constraints. It was to this end that Georges 

Perec wrote a novel in which the letter “e” never appears. The “Oulipians” are coming together at 

this year’s ilb to present their philosophy of literary language mathematics − and to read. 

Fri, 11.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Iraqi Traumas 

PRESENTER: Andreas Pflitsch SPEAKER: Roland Schäfer 

Ali Bader (Iraq/Jordan). He achieved international fame in 2001 with his first novel Bābā Sārtir (t: 

Papa Sartre). The novel is a satirical assessment of Iraqi intellectuals and their helpless imitations 

of French existentialism. His novel al-Hāris at-tabaġ (2008, t: The guardian of tobacco) illuminates 

cultural life in Iraq following the invasion of the US troops. 

Jabbar Yassin Hussein (Iraq/France). The author deals in his texts with the traumatic experience 

of exile, and the loss of home and identity: “I wrote to remind myself of what I had left behind.” He 

will read from Le songe de l’officier américain (t: The American officer’s dream). 

Fri, 11.09. at 7 pm, Babylon 

Kaleidoscope 

Judith Hermann (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Knut Elstermann 

Her first, melancholy-toned collection, Summerhouse, Later: Stories helped spark a renaissance of 

the short story in Germany. Hermann’s spare, clear narratives belong to the tradition of Anton 

Chekhov and Raymond Carver and give voice to the restless, uncertain attitude of a whole 

generation. In Alice, the author presents five “atmospheric yet compelling and masterfully written 

stories of death and the experience of loss,” according to the Jury of the Friedrich-Hölderlin Prize. 

Fri, 11.09. at 7 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 

Reflections 

Barack Obama: the first months of his presidency 

Discussion with Sinan Antoon (USA/Iraq), Michael Krüger (Germany), Pankaj Mishra (India) and 

Eliot Weinberger (USA) 

PRESENTER: Hans Christoph Buch 

As of January 20 , 2009, Barack Obama has been the first black President of the United States. 

“Yes, we can”: Obama rose with the promise of change. How much change has he brought about 

after nine months in office? This will be discussed by US-Iraqi Sinan Antoon, particularly 

knowledgeable in the area of contemporary Arabic culture and politics, Michael Krüger, German 

publisher of Obama’s autobiography The Audacity of Hope (2006), the Indian writer Pankaj Michra 

and the New York essayist Eliot Weinberger. 

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Fri, 11.09. at 7 pm, Kleisthaus 

Kaleidoscope 

Andrew Sean Greer (USA) 

PRESENTER: Martin Jankowski SPEAKER: Tatiana Nekrasov 

The author will read from The Confessions of Max Tivoli. Max Tivoli’s life runs backwards: born an 

old man, he departs this world as a baby. He is in his mid-30s when the great earthquake seizes 

San Francisco; and the first radios are being installed in cars towards the end of his life. – 

Admission is free. 

Fri, 11.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Palestinian Desires 

PRESENTER: Leila Chammaa, SPEAKER: Kathleen Gallego Zapata 

Ala Hlehel (Palestine). In the short story “My man, the bus driver,” a Palestinian woman recounts, 

naïvely and yet with analytical wit, her daily life under the dominance and violence of her husband. 

The bus he drives and in which she occasionally travels – to the envy of the other women – 

represents adventure, and the freedom she will never attain. 

Mahmoud Shukair (Palestine). The author, best known for his short stories, reads from “Shakira’s 

Picture.” A holiday bus and the unreserved pop star Shakira become ironically dramatic symbols of 

disappointed hopes and the impossibility of escaping circumstances, whether those of a maledominated 

society or the difficulties of daily life in Palestine. 

Fri, 11.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Feridun Zaimoglu (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Wilfried F. Schoeller 

Zaimoglu presents his new novel Hinterland, in which he continues his literary examination of 

manifestations of love in our time through several furious episodes. His literary debut appeared in 

1995 with Kanak Sprak. 24 Misstöne vom Rande der Gesellschaft (t: “Kanak” speak. 24 broken 

sounds from the margins of society.) His second novel Abschaum (t: Scum) came in 2000 and laid 

the groundwork for the film Kanak Attack. He has been a fellow at Villa Massimo and has received 

many awards, such as the 2003 Jury Prize from the Ingeborg-Bachmann Competition. In 2007, 

together with Ilija Trojanow, he was poetry docent at Tübingen University. 

Fri, 11.09. at 7.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Poetry Night III 

PRESENTER: Silke Behl, SPEAKERS: Matthias Scherwenikas and Tina Engel 

Robert Gray (Australia) lives in Sydney and is acknowledged to be an outstanding landscape poet. 

His poems impress with their exact imagery, rhythmic individuality and precise rendering of spiritual 

states, without ever drifting into pathos. 

Joy Harjo (USA), born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is an Indian of the Muskogee people. The miserable 

living conditions on reservations often serve as material for her poems. Harjo is also a musician: 

she plays saxophone and combines her poetry with jazz and rock. 

Susan Howe (USA) lives in Connecticut. Her work is often categorised as post-modern, and her 

poetry is mostly concerned with historical and mythical themes. Her work is influenced by Joyce, 

Dickinson, and the historian Slotkin. 

Fri, 11.09. at 8 pm, Stiftung Brandenburger Tor 



PRESENTER: Hartmut Fähndrich, SPEAKER: Frank Arnold 

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This year’s winner of the International Prize for Arab Fiction 2009 reads from his début novel Zil al- 

Af’a (t: Snake). The image of the snake as a symbol of woman has undergone a profound 

transformation in Egyptian tradition: once venerated as a Goddess, she now represents sin and 

thereby mirrors the image of women, from holy to unclean femininity. – Admission free. 

Fri, 11.09. at 8 pm, Humboldt-Forum in the Lustgarten 


Night of Arabic Poetry 

PRESENTER: Suleman Taufiq, SPEAKERS: Corinna Kirchhoff, Susanna Kraus, Friedhelm Ptok 

Yassin Adnan, born in 1970 in Safi, Morocco, has been editor of the journal Aswat Muassira 

(Contemporary Voices) since 1991. He has published two collections of his poetry and one 

collection of short stories. 

Fadhil Al-Azzawi (Iraq). His ironic, humourous poems are published in many Arabic literary 

magazines. Al-Azzawi has been living in Berlin since 1983. 

Yussef Bazzi was born in Beirut in 1966. He deals with the Lebanese Civil War in his poetry and in 

his prose work Yassir Arafat Looked at Me and Smiled. In addition to his work as a journalist he 

has published four poetry collections. 

Inam Bioud was born in 1953 in Damascus, where she studied architecture and art. She also 

holds a degree in translation. Her first works were published when she was young, including poetry 

and novels. The author lives in Algiers. 

Fouad El-Auwad, born in Damascus in 1965, has lived in Germany since 1986. The architect 

(PhD) works as a poet, mystic, storyteller and translator in Munich. (angefragt) 

Abed Ismael, born in 1963 in Lattakia, Syria, is a poet and translator. He studied American 

Literature at New York University. He currently teaches at the University of Damascus. 

Moncef Mezghanni was born in Sfax in 1954. He has been organising cultural events and writers’ 

gatherings in Tunisia since 1970. He writes poems, Arabic song lyrics, and plays for children. 

Hala Mohammad was born in the Syrian port city Lattakia. She studied Film in France at the 

Université Paris 8. Since 1994, she has also been turning her energies toward poetry, in addition to 

her work in film. 

Fatima Naoot, born in Cairo in 1964, studied Architecture at the Ain Shams University in Cairo, 

where she completed her BA in 1987. She works as a poet, journalist, and translator. 

Dalia Taha was born in Berlin in 1986, but grew up in Ramallah (West Bank). She studied 

Architecture at the Birzeit University in Ramallah and works as a writer and poet. 

Ghassan Zaqtan was born in 1954 in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem. He has lived in Jordan, Syria, 

Lebanon, and Tunisia, and currently lives in Ramallah. In addition to his work as a poet and writer, 

he has also worked as a scriptwriter. 

Fri, 11.09. at 8.30 pm, Maxim Gorki Theater / Studio stage 

Speak, Memory 

Halide Edip Adıvar (Istanbul 1884 – Istanbul 1964) 

INTRODUCTION: Noël David Nicolaus, SPEAKER: Elizabeth Blonzen 

The lauded Turkish writer, women’s rights activist and professor, Halide Edip Adivar, writes about a 

topical issue in The Daughter of the Shadow Player: a young Turkish woman’s search for her own 

culture. Towards the end of the Ottoman Empire, Rabia Abla encounters Western singing, Islamic 

mysticism, and an Italian piano teacher. A fascinating coming of age novel as a plea for cultural 

openness. 



Christine Montalbetti 

PRESENTER: Marius Meller, SPEAKER: Corinna Kirchhoff 

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The author, who was born in Havre, presents three of her works at one event. Western is a parody 

of a spaghetti western with saloons, deserts and sweeping natural landscapes through which the 

two protagonists Mary and Georgina travel. L'origine l'homme (t: The origin of man) concerns itself 

with the historical customs officer and palaeontologist Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur de Perthes 

(1788-1868). He tried to use Palaeolithic flint tools to rebut the theories of his adversaries, who 

claimed that humans had inhabited the earth only since the time of the great flood – and thus for 

only 6,000 years. The third work is “Hotel Komaba Eminence,” from the collection Petits déjeuners 

avec quelques écrivains célèbres (t: Breakfast with some famous writers). 

Fri, 11.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Focus Arabic World - Reflections 

The Western View of the Arab World 

with Malek Alloula (Algeria), Sonia Hegasy, Andreas Pflitsch, Stefan Weidner (Germany) and 

François Zabbal (France) 

PRESENTER: Susanne Stemmler 

In western media's coverage of the Arab world, the focus is mainly on terrorism, war, and the 

conflict in the Middle East, oil, the oppression of women, religious fanaticism, and other “bad 

news.” This dominates and homogenizes our ideas of countries and regions like Egypt, Iraq, 

Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Morocco. 

What images of Arab lands and peoples do we have in our heads? Which clichés, prejudices, and 

experiences determine the Western view of the Orient? And how can these be expanded, 

differentiated, improved? This event includes simultaneous interpretation. Headsets available in the 



Reflections 

City world – World city ll: Sarajevo 

Omar Akbar in discussion with Aleksandar Hemon 

The former director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Omar Akbar, talks with the Bosnian writer 

Aleksander Hemon about Sarajevo today and how this lost city found its way into the work of the 

author, whom Ilma Rakusa describes as “a sensitive and humorous chronicler of being in transit 

between East and West.” 

Fri, 11.09. at 9 pm, Babylon 

Reflections 

Alice Schwarzer (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Knut Elstermann 

For more than 30 years, Alice Schwarzer has been one of Europe’s leading critics of (political) 

Islam. Tonight she will read from her 1979 report on her trip to Khomeini’s Iran and from her essay 

“Die Antwort” (t: The answer): about, as she says, the consequences of “the Islamist crusade from 

Tehran to Kreuzberg.” A discussion with the audience will follow. 


Specials_Concert 

Watching Me Fall 

Categories like “mainstream” or “underground” mean nothing to this Berlin Band. Self-exposure 

against self-exposure seems to be their credo when front-woman Susanne Heinrich sings, “If we 

can't be unique / let's be all of them.” The musicians consistently mix new wave, indie and rock. 

Quickly banged out sketches alongside grand gestures, tough and very urban. The fact that two 

authors (Susanne Heinrich, Marcus Braun) are at work here – and that the band has so far only 

been seen at selected Berlin locations – makes this appearance unmissable. 

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Fri, 11.09. at 10:30, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Speak, Memory 

Alexandra Kamo reads Henry Miller's Sexus 

TEXT REVISION and ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Helge-Björn Meyer 

Alexandra Kamp's way of reading makes Miller's (1981-1980) gigantic labyrinth of life and love 

seem like a midsummer night's dream for our time: stunning and sensual. She searches for the 

sound, the inner pulse that beats in this excessive novel, propelling the story of the author's “only 

and true love” forward. It is a story expressing an obsession with permanent sexual collision, 

collision carried to extremes. Above all, it is an examination of the way men think and speak. 

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Sat, 12.09. at 11 am, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Education in the Arab World – Development Crisis or Breakthrough to Global 

Understanding? 

The modernisation of the education system has played a significant role in the Arab world at least 

since the second world war. Although the quality of education in specific countries varies quite a 

bit, many Arab states strive for educational excellence. But what is the outlook on basic education 

for all? Are these educational systems capable of performing and delivering quality that is high 

enough to meet the challenges of a global world? What must be improved in order for these 

systems to have enduring effects and contribute to development in Arab countries? In cooperation 

with the German Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH. Event with 

simultaneous interpretation. Headsets available in the downstairs foyer. 

Sat, 12.09. at 1 pm, Osteria No. 1 

Reflections 

Jürgen Roth (Germany): Mafia Land Germany 

Jürgen Roth shows how the Mafia organisation ’Ndrangheta and the Russian Mafia are 

undermining Germany. Since the Duisburg murders, the German public has become familiar with 

the Calabresi ’Ndrangheta. Roth’s conclusion: the Mafia has found its place here. Right at the top. 

Sat, 12.09. at 1 pm, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung 


Iraqi Literature and Exile 

with Ali Bader (Iraq/Jordan), Jabbar Yassin Hussein (Iraq/France), Samuel Shimon 

(Iraq/Britain), Abbas Khider (Iraq/Germany) 

PRESENTER: Marie-Claude Souaid-Hesse 

Iraq’s history in the 20th and 21st centuries has been dominated by dictatorships, oppression, 

violence, and war. The era of Saddam Hussein, the Gulf Wars, and the internal insecurity since the 

US invasion in 2003 have led many Iraqis, especially artists and intellectuals who were critical of 

the regime, to leave the country. How does the experience of oppression and flight find expression 

in Iraqi exile literature? Has the writer’s literary work altered? Four Iraqi writers in exile discuss 

experience and self-image. An event with simultaneous interpretation. – Admission free. 

Sat, 12.09. at 1 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Focus Arab World - Reflections 

What to read? – Ways to procure literature 

with Larissa Bender (Germany), Fouad El-Auwad (Syria/Germany), Hassan Hammad 

(Egypt/Switzerland) and Margareth Obank (Britain) 


Where can western readers find Arab literature? What ways and means are there to procure 

literature? Journals, the internet, and personal encounters help to spread Arab literature in the 

West. How can we “search for” and “find” Arab writers? Agents of international literature present 

and discuss possibilities. An event with simultaneous interpretation. 

Sat, 12.09. at 3 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side stage 


Crime and Love 

PRESENTER: Leila Chammaa, SPEAKER: Tina Engel 

Alawiyya Sobh (Lebanon). The author reads from her first novel, Mariam at-kakayya (2002, t: 

Maryam of the stories). Seen through the eyes of the narrator Maryam, the relations between men 

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and women are depicted with delicacy and sensitivity. The issue of love and violent sexuality is 

treated fearlessly and openly. 

Taleb Al-Refai (Kuwait). Al-Refai, storyteller and novelist, doesn't shy away from thorny issues. His 

themes are the lives of immigrant guest workers in Kuwait, sexual abuse, and the oppression of 

women. He reads his short story “Minor Thefts.” 



Lecture: The Heritage of Arabic Literature 



The professor, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandria and winner of the 2009 Arab Booker Prize 

discusses in his lecture the semantics of the Arabic word “Turath” (legacy/heritage). Only 5% of the 

most important handwritten manuscripts have so far been released, hundreds of thousands remain 

unpublished. And so “heritage,” according to Ziedan, is the result of individual interests. 

Consequently, the knowledge of existing manuscripts is indifferent, and the view of history remains 

one-sided. An event with simultaneous interpretation. Headsets are available in the ground floor 

foyer. 

Sat, 12.09. at 4.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Focus Arab World - Reflections 

Power and Culture 

with Yassin Adnan (Morocco), Taleb Al-Refai (Kuwait) and Alawiyya Sobh (Lebanon) 

PRESENTER: Sonja Hegasy 

Culture can be both the opponent and the tool of political power. It can resist, be critical, open eyes 

– but it can also parrot what has been said, obfuscate, and obey. The significance of culture can be 

seen most clearly in the repressive instrument of censorship, which is also a political tool in Arab 

countries. How can culture and politics constructively collaborate? What framework does culture 

need? How, and on which levels, can and should culture enrich and change politics? An event with 

simultaneous interpretation. 

Sat, 12.09. at 4.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Otto de Kat (The Netherlands) 

MODERATION: Florian Höllerer 

“A wonderful novel,” said Cees Nooteboom of his countryman Otto de Kat’s first book, The Figure 

in the Distance, published in English translation in 2002. The English publication of Man on the 

Move followed seven years later. Now, the author is presenting his novel Julia, to be published in 

2010. In this work, he remains true to his overriding theme: the life not lived, which is inseparably 

bound to loneliness and loss. 

Sat, 12.09. at 5 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 

Kaleidoscope 

Alban Nikolai Herbst (Germany) 


“My most passionate and bitter book, and maybe my most poetic and most beautiful,” is how the 

Berlin-based writer, librettist, opera critic and radio director Alban Nikolai Herbst described his 

novel Meere (t: Oceans). Gregor Eisenhauer wrote in the Frankfurter Rundschau: “This book must 

be read.” The author will read from the edition published by Axel Dielmann Verlag. 

Sat, 12.09. at 5 pm, Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt / Carl-Maria von Weber Hall 

Specials 

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Aka Morchiladze (Georgia) 

The literary fireworks of the most prominent author in Georgian contemporary literature take the 

reader on a journey to a world that is sometimes ironic and bizarre, sometimes quietly melancholy, 

but always fascinating: to the imaginary Santa Esperanza Islands in the Black Sea. 

Sat, 12.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Andrew Sean Greer (USA) 

PRESENTER: Bernhard Robben, SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

The author will be presenting his new novel, The Story of a Marriage, which will appear this 

autumn. It is a mysterious, lyrical love story set against the backdrop of the 1950s. In the novel, 

everyday life on the east coast is defined by the recent Second World War and current Korean 

War, which almost imperceptibly produce a climate of fear and repression. Told from the 

perspective of a wife selflessly devoted to her husband and son, the complex portrait of a 

relationship emerges and is then abruptly shattered when the past, in the form of an old friend, 

invades the painstakingly maintained family idyll and calls into question the future. 


Focus Arab World I Literatures of the World 

The Maghreb and Europe 

PRESENTER: François Zabbal, SPEAKER: Margarita Broich 

Leila Sebbar (Algeria/France). In Les femms au bain (2006, t: Women bathing) women in a sauna 

talk about love, hopes, and desire. L’arabe comme un chant secret (2007, t: Arabic as a secret 

song) is a homage to Sebbar’s Algerian father. In her new family novel Mon cher fils (2009, t: My 

dear son), a father-son relationship is at the heart of the story. 

Youssef Amine Elalamy (Morocco). The novel Les clandestins (2001) was published in English as 

Sea Drinkers and in German as Gestrandet in 2008. The subject of the novel is an attempt to find 

refuge in Spain which ends in a shipwreck. The twelve men and pregnant woman speak, sharing 

their hopes and dreams. An event with simultaneous interpretation. Headsets are available in the 


Sat, 12.09. at 6 pm, Konzertsaal der Universität der Künste 

Specials 

An evening of song with Antonia Pozzi 

INTRODUCTION: Gabriella Rovagnati, COMPOSITION: Johanna Doderer, SINGERS: Elisa Maffi 

(Soprano), Peter Schöne (Baritone), PIANO: Enrico Calesso 

An evening of song, with poems by Antonia Pozzi set to music. Born in 1912 in Milan, the daughter 

of a lawyer, the Italian poet grew up in an affluent and respectable home. She studied Philosophy 

and Literature at university in Milan and earned a doctorate in Philosophy in 1936. Her main 

interest in this period was modern German, French and English literature. She died in Milan in 

1938, a suicide. Her works were published posthumously. This evening’s performance is of her 

work “Words”. With support from Comune Milano. – Tickets available only at the box office. 


Kaleidoscope 

Emmanuelle Pagano (France) 

PRESENTER: Barbara Wahlster, SPEAKER: Tina Engel 

“Writing means trying to open the wounds, to scratch at them, even if it hurts a little,” says Pagano. 

The heroine of her novel, The Hair Drawer, is a very young single mother in a small town in the 

south of France. The elder of her two sons is mentally handicapped, and not only the young 

woman’s parents feel that he would be better off in a home. 

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Sat, 12.09. at 7 pm, Babylon 

Specials 

Berlin Film Premiere: Disgrace with John Malkovich, based on the novel by John M. Coetzee 

Australia/South Africa 2008 | Colour | 120 Min. | English w/ German subtitles. 

Director: Steve Jacobs 

David Lurie (Malkovich), 52 years old and twice divorced, teaches Romantic Literature at Cape 

Town University. The young-at-heart Don Juan seduces one of his students, but the affair soon 

takes an unpleasant turn and Lurie loses his job. The film adaptation of the international bestseller 

by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature J. M. Coetzee grants us moving and unsparing 

insight into the personal depths and political conditions of a ruptured society. Coetzee’s novel won 

the renowned Booker Prize in 1999. at The film adaptation of Disgrace won the International Critics 

Award at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. Admission: €7.50 

Sat, 12.09. at 7 pm, Zentral-Landesbibliothek Berlin 


City world – World city III: Alexandria 

Omar Akbar in discussion with Youssef Ziedan (Egypt) 

Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, has been conquered many times and 

therefore influenced by many cultures. Today it is the second largest city in North Africa. It is 

famous for the Royal Library of Alexandria, which boasts the largest and most highly regarded 

collection of Greek and Roman antiquities. Professor Dr. Youssef Ziedan, director of the 

department of manuscripts at the library of Alexandrina, which was opened in 2002, and winner of 

the Arab Book Prize 2009, will speak with Omar Akbar, urbanist and former director of the Bauhaus 

Foundation, about Alexandria. 

Sat, 12.09. at 7.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Poetry Night IV 

PRESENTER: Silke Behl SPEAKER: Astrid Gorvin and Frank Arnold 

Inam Bioud (Algeria). Bioud grew up in Damascus, where she studied Architecture. The multifaceted 

poet, novelist, and painter currently runs the High Arab Institute of Translation in Algiers. 

Hala Mohammad (Syria). Colours, smells, and movements are connected in her poetry with everrecurring 

themes. This corresponds to memory, which also plays a special role in the author’s film 

work. 

Fatima Naoot (Egypt). Naoot is one of the most famous Egyptian poets. Her poems are often 

dedicated to the powerless. Her language is rich in metaphors, is rhythmic and melancholic in tone. 

Amjad Nasser (Jordan/ Great Britain). As well as two books of travel writing, he has published six 

collections of his poetry. His poems have appeared in German in the anthology Die Farbe der 

Ferne (2000, t: The colour of distance). He has lived in London since 1987, where he co-founded 

the famous Arabic newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, where he is the editor of the cultural pages. 

Dalia Taha (Palestine) was born in Berlin in 1986, but grew up in Ramallah (West Bank). Her first 

collection of poetry, published this year with the title Shurfa wa-la ahad (t: A balcony and no-one 

there), combines themes of farewell and death in recurring metaphors in a quiet, melancholic tone. 



Short-listed: Arab Booker Prize 

PRESENTER and SPEAKER: Hartmut Fähndrich 

Mekkawi Said (Egypt). The author won the Egyptian State Prize for Literature in 2008 and landed 

on the short-list for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction with his second novel, Cairo Swan 

Song. He writes about homeless and orphaned street kids in Cairo, a former student activist 

Mustafa, who would like to help, and his American girlfriend. 

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Khaled Khalifa (Syria). Madih al-karahiya (2006, t: In praise of hatred) was short-listed for the 

International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008. The novel describes the escalation of hatred and 

fanaticism under a dehumanizing regime through the story of its protagonist. She joins the Islamic 

opposition. Only in prison does she recognise the meaning of life. 

Sat, 12.09. at 8 pm, Hotel Bliebtreu 

Kalaidescope 

Robert Gray (Australia) 

The Australian author Robert Gray will read from his poetry collection Schwindendes Licht (t: 

Fading Light). See programme announcement for 10.09, 8 pm. 

Sat, 12.09. at 8 pm, Literaturhaus Berlin 

Specials 



The Oulipo writer’s group − Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (“workshop for potential literature”) − 


possibilities of language through the use of formal constraints. The “Oulipians” are coming together 

at this year’s ilb to present their philosophy of literary language mathematics − and to read. 

Sat, 12.09. at 8 pm, Festsaal Kreuzberg 

Specials 

THE INTERNATIONAL SLAM!REVUE 

Twelve outstanding Spoken Word poets and performers from around the world will be honouring us 

with their presence: the participants include masters of their trades, be it Spoken Word poetry, rap 

and storytelling, or experimental performance and comedy. Many of the poets are national Slam 

champions, have cult followings in their literary communities, and are here in Germany for the first 

time. The audience will choose the winner at the end of the evening (by Applause-O-Meter)! 

With: Najiba Abdellaoui (Morocco/Holland), Stefan Abermann (Austria), Anke Fuchs (Germany), 

Estragon aka Grzegorz Bruszewski (Poland), Queen KA (Quebec/Canada), Nicolette Kretz 

(Switzerland), Lauréline Kuntz (France), Masha (Czech Republic), Laura Wihlborg (Sweden), 

Josep Pedrals (Catalonia/Spain), Stefano Raspini (Italy), Paula Varjack (Britain), Guests of 

Honour Gary Glazner und K&K (Wehwalt Koslovsky and Frank Klötgen). Your guides through 

this evening of rapid-fire wordplay will be the Berlin writer Martin Jankowski and the musical 

German performance poet (with band) Ivo Lotion & die Mariachis! Admission 15.00 €, with 

reduction 10.00 € 

Sat, 12.09. at 8.30 pm, Maxim Gorki Theater / Studio stage 

Speak, Memory 

James Krüss (Helgoland 1926 – Gran Canaria 1997) 

INTRODUCTION and DISCUSSION: Klaus Doderer & Hans-Joachim Gelberg, PRESENTER: 

Hartmut Diekmann, SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

The focus of this event is the author James Krüss, who died in 1997. Participants in the discussion 

are the renowned researcher of children’s books and young fiction, and old friend of the author, 

Klaus Doderer, and the founder of the children’s and youth publishing house Beltz & Gelberg, 

Hans-Joachim Gelberg. They will discuss various aspects of the word-artist Krüss’ significance in 

the development of children’s literature since 1945. Afterwards there will be an opportunity for open 

discussion. 

Sat, 12.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 


Envisioning a cultural dialogue with the West 

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PRESENTER: Michi Strausfeld 

With Raja Alem (Saudi-Arabia), Azouz Begag (France), Necla Kelek (Germany), Pankaj Mishra 

(Great Britain/India), Najem Wali (Iraq), Stefan Weidner (Germany) and Eliot Weinberger (USA) 

PRESENTER: Michi Strausfeld 

One year ago, the Syrian-Lebanese poet Adonis called the dogmatic and uncompromising claims 

on truth made by monotheistic religions the central problem in the Arabic-Western dialogue – 

especially when they are integrated in government institutions. From an economic point of view, a 

broad policy of isolation has existed in the EU for decades – the images of refugees who have 

been stranded, arrested or have lost their lives crossing the water cast this in a harsh light. A free 

trade zone is unthinkable at this point. The speakers at this event will attempt to answer questions 

about what needs to change in order for Arabic-Western communication to move in a constructive 

direction. Event with simultaneous interpretation. Headsets available in the downstairs lobby. 



Next Generation – young talents 

PRESENTER: Christian Junge, SPEAKER: Julia Malik 

Rehab Bassam (Egypt). The blogger is also known under her web name Hadouta (Fable). 

Bassam’s blog “Arruz bi-laban li-schakhsain” (t: Rice pudding for two), which she writes with two 

other female bloggers, was collected and published in 2008 and became a best-seller. They reflect 

on life and tell their stories in a happy and colourful style. 

Mansoura Ezz Eldin (Egypt). Her second novel Wara’ al-firdaus (t: Beyond paradise) is about 

Selma, who returns to her parents after the failure of her marriage and begins writing a book about 

her family in an attempt to understand and accept her own past. Ezz Eldin’s narrative style shifts 

between dream and reality, past and present. 

Samar Yazbek (Syria). Smell of Cinnamon is about the lesbian relationship between a woman 

from Damascus and her maidservant. During the day the lady rules, and at night the servant 

becomes the “queen.” At the end both discover misery in a society which denies individual 

freedoms. 


Kaleidoscope 

Thomas Hettche 

PRESENTER: Florian Höllerer 

The USA, after 9/11 and before the declaration of war against Iraq: the journalist Niklas Kalf sets 

off on an uncertain journey. In his novel Woraus wir gemacht sind (Eng. What We Are Made Of), 

Thomas Hettche creates a panorama of an equally familiar and foreign country. This German 

coming-of-age novel set in the USA captures in wonderful descriptions the fascination of the 

country, and was honoured with a nomination for the German Book Award 2006. 

Sat, 12.09. at 9:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 


Something Sweet 

Documentary film by Hala Mohammed (Syria) 

The actor Abdel-Hakim Quatayfan is thinking about sweets as he returns from a two-week prison 

sentence – that turned into nine years. The poet Adnan Moqdad and the writer Hasiba Abdel- 

Rahman were also political prisoners. What does one dream about in prison? Are there love stories 

there? What is life like afterwards? This sensitive film creates a striking portrait of the traumas, 

dreams, wounds and strengths that have shaped and entire generation of Syria's intellectual elite. 

The film will be followed by a discussion with the director. 


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Kaleidoscope 

Eliot Weinberger (USA) 

PRESENTER: Claudia Schmölders SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

One of the most politically committed authors in the USA, New Yorker Eliot Weinberger continues 

his work as an “agreeable, unobtrusive observer” – as Tobias Wenzel of the Frankfurter 

Rundschau respectfully called him – in his essay collection An Elemental Thing. After his political 

account of the Bush era in What I heard about Iraq, he now turns his attention to the topic of 

globalization, which he analyses through seemingly unconnected fragments taken from 4,000 

years of natural and human history. 

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Sun, 13.09. at 11 am, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Focus Arabic World 

Prose of the Arabic Peninsula I 

PRESENTER: Günther Orth, SPEAKER: Frank Arnold 

Youssef Al-Mohaimeed (Saudi Arabia). Al-Mohaimeed became famous in Europe with his début 

novel, Fikhakh al-ra’iha (t: Wolves of the crescent moon), which was banned in Saudi Arabia. It is 

an enthralling, poetic, and surreal story of three outsiders. His new novel Al-Hamam la yatir fi 

Buraida (t: No pigeons fly in Buraydah) is about the subtle public tyranny of the so-called 

“Committee For Virtue,” which stalks young unmarried couples in Riyadh. 

Abduh Khal (Saudi Arabia). Khal is a master of detailed and complexly arranged observations 

about his country. The novelist and essayist concentrates in his works on the overlooked and 

neglected. The village is often at the centre of his literary work, a universal symbol of the traditional 

Arab world. 

Arwa Abduh Othman (Yemen). Arwa Abduh Othman weaves stories from the silken threads of 

her childhood memories, inspired by stories her grandmother told her and the richness of the 

Yemenite fairy tale tradition. In Shabbaik Labbaik a man marries a tyrannical dog who, it transpires, 

is a bewitched young beauty – which does not necessarily mean that there will be a happy end. 

Sun, 13.09. at 11 am, Maison Victor 

Specials 

The next Joyce will come from the Orient 

Samuel Shimon (Iraq/Britain) and Stefan Weidner (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Jan Valk SPEAKER: Oliver Führmann 

Samuel Shimon was born in Iraq in 1956 and has lived in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, 

France, and today lives in London. The journalist is among the most important agents of Arab 

literature in the world (including being on the jury for the Arabic Booker Prize). He will read form his 

novel An Iraqi in Paris and talk with the translator Stefan Weidner about Arab exile literature. 

Admission is free. 

Sun, 13.09. at 1:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


What languages does Arab literature speak? 

with Abbas Khider (Iraq/Germany), Leila Sebbar (France/Algeria) and Suleman Taufiq 

(Syria/Germany) 


What literary languages are there in Arab literature? Where does literature cross regional and 

national boundaries? The Arab world in particular is characterised by migration and inter-cultural 

influences. Immigrants, exile writers, Palestinians, the people of the Maghreb – the cultural 

diversity within the Arab world is enormous. This is also reflected in their literature. This event 

features simultaneous translation. Headsets are available in the downstairs foyer. 

Sun, 13.09. at 1:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele 


UNESCO WORKSHOP: The Magna Carta of international culture politics 

The forms of expression in the UNESCO agreement for the protection and support of cultural 

diversity (2005) bring human rights into culture-politics. The goal is to set standards for the 

development of culture and the interaction between cultures. Member states are required to put 

political institutions in place which respect, protect and support cultural diversity. Authors from 

various countries speak about the opportunities the convention has made possible in their regions. 

Internal Author workshop in cooperation with the German UNESCO-Commission e. V. Closed 

Event. 

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Sun, 13.09. at 3 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Prose of the Arabic Peninsula II 

PRESENTER: Günther Orth, SPEAKER: Corinna Kirchhoff 

Raja Alem (Saudi-Arabia). The author reads from her novel Sitr (t:veil), which is yet to be 

published in Germany: after her divorce, Mariam comes up against society's traditional, 

conventional judgements and expectations. Sitr offers us a valuable insight in the lives of women in 

today's Arab world. 

Ali Al-Muqri (Yemen). The Yemenite writer reads excerpts from his book Black Taste, Black Smell 

and draws us into the world of the pariah “Achdam” people, who form a racially persecuted, largely 

taboo parallel society in Yemen. The hypocrisy of the pious Arabs is revealed with lively wit by the 

Achdam Surur. 

Sun, 13.09. at 4 pm, Uhr Babylon 

Specials 

Sicily! I: Vincenzo Consolo (Italy) 

PRESENTER: Maike Albath SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

His new novel Palermo: The Pain is set in the city. A bomb attack on the Mafia prosecutor Paolo 

Borsellino in 1992 brings the Sicilian writer Gioacchino Martinez back to Palermo, the city he loves 

and hates, the city of political ambivalence and the Mafia. In German and Italian. 

5:30 pm 

Sicily! II: Leonardo Sciascia 

Autoritratto, Documentary film, shown in the original Italian, 27 min. 

“Leonardo Sciascia’s crime novels leave no room for doubt that Sicily and the Mafia mean more in 

Italy’s political discourse than just the metaphorical idea of ‘fratellanze’ or ‘familiglia’ - that they are 

a state-within-the-state,” wrote Beatrix Langner in the SZ. Sciascia says himself that the whole of 

Sicily should be sunk, and only then could the attempt be made to re-impose order – a statement 

that has become popular on the streets of Palermo. The documentary film provides glimpses into 

the literary work and political activity of this fearless loner. 

6 pm 

Sicily! III: Podium discussion on the 20 th anniversary of the death of Leonardo Sciascia 

Presenter: Maike Albath 

WITH: Vincenzo Consolo (Italy), Helene Harth (Germany), Amara Lakhous (Algeria/Italy), and 

Susanne Schüssler (Germany) 

Vincenzo Consolo, born in Sicily in 1933, became widely known with his début novel La ferita 

dell’aprile (t: The wound in April). In 1992 he won the Premio Strega for his novel Nottetempo, casa 

per casa (t: By Night, From House to House). 

Helene Harth. Following her postdoctoral degree at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, her 

path as a Professor for Romance Studies took her to the universities of Passau and Saarbrücken. 

In 1993 she founded the Insitut für Romanistik at Potsdam University. She co-founded Zibaldone. 

Journal for Contemporary Italian Culture. 

Amara Lakhous, born in Algiers in 1970, has lived in Rome since 1995. He studied philosophy in 

Algiers and intercultural relations in Rome. His first book to be translated in to German is Krach der 

Kulturen um einen Fahrstuhl an der Piazza Vittorio (t: Clash of cultures over an elevator at Piazza 

Vittorio). 

Susanne Schüssler worked in various publishing houses before and during her university studies 

in Germany. She came to Wagenbach Verlag in 1990. In 2002, she assumed control of the 

publishing house which was founded by her husband Klaus Wagenbach. 

This event will be in German and Italian. 

7:30 pm 

Sicily! IV: Leonardo Sciascia_Film Porte Aperte, Italy, 1990, Ital. w/Engl. subtitles 

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Open Doors is Gianni Amelio’s film adaptation of Sciascia’s 1987 novel. The year is 1937, and the 

Sicilian Tommaso Scalia is charged with triple murder. Scalia is as good as dead before sentence 

has been passed. A farmer friend wants to help him, but the apparent salvation does not last long. 

Director: Gianni Amelio. In cooperation with the Institute of Italian Culture. 

Sun, 13.09. at 4:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Prose of the Arab Peninsula III: Breaking taboos versus silence 

with Youssef Al-Mohaimeed (Saudi Arabia), Ali Al-Muqri (Yemen) and Raja Alem (Saudi Arabia) 

and Angela Tschorsnig (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Günther Orth 

On the Arabic peninsula, censorship is still dominant as a repressive instrument for use against 

discomforting literature. Criticism of the regime, sex, and otherness are all unwanted themes, and 

are frequently covered-up and banned. The writer here is faced with a decision: break taboos, or 

stay silent? What is communicated in the novels, and what isn’t? Which taboos are dealt with and 

which remain untouched? 

Today a new tendency towards breaking social taboos in literature can be observed. What risks 

and problems does this involve? Authors from the region speak about the possibilities and 

boundaries, chances and hopes in their literary work. 

Sun, 13.09. at 4:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Jonas Hassan Khemiri (Sweden/Tunisia) 

PRESENTER: Knut Elstermann SPEAKER: Caroline Peters 

Montecore, a Tiger on Two Legs tells the story of a certain Jonas. His father is the main character 

of this book, who appears on the first page, elegantly dressed, strolling up and down the roof 

terrace of his luxurious New York loft apartment. It is the author’s second novel. Jonas Hassen 

Khemiri was born in Stockholm in 1978, the son of a Swedish mother and a Tunisian father. He has 

been awarded the Per-Olof-Enquist Prize. 

Sun, 13.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Colm Tóibín (Ireland/USA) 

PRESENTER: Wilfried F. Schoeller SPEAKER: Frank Arnold 

The author will read from Mothers and Sons, a recently published volume of short stories. Tóibín 

often depicts dwellings and the relationships of people who live therein through the description of 

everyday details – dialogue, thoughts, observations, experiences – trimmed of unnecessary 

explanations. The unspoken takes centre stage and motivates the plot: an underlying anguish, an 

indescribable bewilderment, a laboriously held balance. Lothar Müller names him one of: “… the 

greatest narrators of his generation.” 



On the laws of the Arab book market 

PRESENTER: Suleman Taufiq 

with Mansoura Ezz Eldin (Egypt), and Hassan Khader (Palestine) 

For Western observers, Arab countries seem to have a deregulated book trade. What mechanisms 

and structures for publication are there in the Arab world, what players and what decision-making 

processes? What are the differences to and similarities with Germany? An event with simultaneous 

interpretation. Headsets will be available in the downstairs foyer. 

Sun, 13.09. at 7 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 

2

Kaleidoscope 

Wojciech Kuczok (Poland) 

PRESENTER: Marius Meller, SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

“Kuczok is the most stylish, musical, and passionate writer that Polish literature currently has to 

offer,” wrote Jörg Plath in the Frankfurter Rundschau. Incandescent with rage and sarcastically 

narrated, the novel Bastard is about the dramatic course of German and Polish history during the 

20 th century, and the violence which is carried over into the private life of a family. Event with 

simultaneous interpretation. 

Sun, 13.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Tim Parks (Britain/Italy) 

PRESENTER: Gabriele von Arnim, SPEAKER: Frank Arnold 

Parks’ new novel Dreams of Rivers and Seas is a social panorama of modern India: a son delves 

into the anthropological world of his father’s thoughts. The author meets his characters' internal 

strife with almost grotesque humour and effortlessly maintains the balance between the tragic and 

the banal. Event with simultaneous interpretation. Headsets will be available in the downstairs 

foyer. 

Sun, 13.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Hans Christoph Buch (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Marko Martin 

In his new novel Sansibar Blues oder: Wie ich Livingstone fand (t: Zanzibar blues, or: how I found 

Livingstone), the writer blurs the boundaries between journalism and literature and brings together 

three real historical personages on the legendary spice island in the Indian Ocean with a German 

colonial history. Sultans' daughters, slave traders, and spies cavort through this burlesque novel. 

Sun, 13.09. at 7.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Rachid Boudjedra (Algerien) 

PRESENTER: Marie-Claude Souaid-Hesse SPEAKER: Lars Rudolph 

Boudjedra is one of the most significant writers of modern Maghreb. The author will read from The 

Disorder of Things, which the FAZ described with the following words: “a rousing, breathless rush 

of a novel that bears witness to a hundred years of Maghreb desperation, a literary work of art.” 

Sun, 13.09. at 8 pm, Baxpax Lounge and Rooftop Terrace 

One to the head − SLAM on top! 

Slam show with Queen KA (Quebec/Canada), Josep Pedrals (Catalonia/Spain), Masha 

(Switzerland), Stefano Raspini (Italy) and surprise guests. Presented by Martin Jankowski, DJ 

MrHi. 

Free admission. 



Morocco: Everyday and exceptional circumstances 

PRESENTER and SPEAKER: Hartmut Fähndrich 

Yassin Adnan (Morocco). Adnan belongs to Morocco’s young generation of writers. He writes with 

wit and irony about the large and small tragedies of everyday life. He will read the short stories 

“Just One Chat in White,” which reveals the thoughts of a whore, and “Who Believes Letters 

Anyway,” in which a scoundrel must learn that lies travel fast. 

2

Mahi Binebine (Morocco). In his novel Welcome to Paradise, Binebine illuminates the dark reality 

for those people who, every day and under life-threatening conditions, attempt the hopeful journey 

from North Africa to Europe, only to be exposed to a brutal and merciless struggle for survival. 

Sun, 13.09. at 9 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 

Kaleidoscope 

Dorota Masłowska 

PRESENTER: Knut Elstermann, SPEAKER: Beata Lehmann 

The author was born in 1983 and won the greatest Polish literature prize, ‘Nike’, for The Heron 

Queen. The novel is an unsparing rap on the struggle to exist in the media and consumer world. 

The main character Stan Retro is a failing pop star. His girlfriend has left him and the media are 

stalking him with libellous stories about his sex life. “A furious, true, brilliant novel […] This is how 

subtle and powerful literature can be (‘Der Spiegel’).” 

Sun, 13.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Focus Arab World_Speak, Memory 

In memory of: Mahmud Darwisch 

PRESENTER: Adel Karasholi 

Readers: Adel Karasholi (Syria), Hassan Khader (Palestine), Hala Mohammad (Syria), Amjad 

Nasser (Jordan/ Great Britain), Fatima Naoot (Egypt) and Joachim Sartorius (Germany) 

The Arabic-German poet Adel Karasholi has translated many works by the Palestinian poet 

Mahmoud Darwish into German, most recently the poem “The Dice Player,” which Darwish 

published shortly before his death in August 2008. In a homage to the poet, Karasholi describes 

Darwish’s life and reads some of his poems in German. The original texts will be read by poets 

from various Arab countries as well as Joachim Sartorius. 

2

Mon, 14.09. at 11 am, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 


Workshop: Arab human rights activists and journalists against genocide in Darfur / Sudan 

LEADER: Ulrich Delius 

In Arab countries the genocide in Darfur has also been ignored as much as possible, which can be 

taken as a sign of the status of human rights. 400,000 people have lost their lives since 2003. The 

workshop will focus on the dangerous commitment of human rights activists and journalists and the 

silence of Arab goverments in regards to this issue. In cooperation with the Gesellschaft für 

bedrohte Völker e. V. (The association for threatened peoples). 

Mon, 14.09. at 1 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 


Workshop: Forced assimilation of Kurds in Syria 

LEADER: Sarah Reinke 

For more than 50 years, more than two million Kurds in Syria have been suffering under 

"Arabization" Tens of thousands have lost their citizenship, many driven from the country. Kurdish 

culture and teaching in Kurdish have been forbidden. This workshop takes the politics of 

"Arabization" as its theme. Was does this mean for the cultural identity of Syrian Kurds? What 

answers have the Kurdish cultural leaders found? In cooperation with the Gesellschaft für bedrohte 

Völker e. V. (The association for threatened peoples). 



Workshop: Kabyle people in Algeria promote recognition of their language and culture 

LEADERS: Ulrich Delius and a representative of the Association for German-Kabyle Friendship 

More than 40 years after Algeria's Independence, the Kabyles are still waiting for recognition of 

their basic rights. Although their language is officially acknowledged, the government's policies of 

Arabization continue, threatening to destroy a language and culture that is several thousand years 

old. Workshop for information on the culture of the Kabyle people and their fight for democracy. In 

cooperation with the Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker e. V. (The association for threatened 

peoples). 

Mon, 14.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Sayed Kashua (Palestine/Israel) 

PRESENTER: Barbara Wahlster SPEAKER: Burghart Klaußner 

A young journalist returns to his Arab village, not far from Jerusalem. The villagers have always 

been isolated, and always felt like outsiders among the Jewish population. In his second novel And 

It Became Morning the young Arab author who has Israeli nationality tackles this issue once again 

and creates an apocalyptic panorama. 

Mon, 14.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


What comes across? – Arab Literature in the West 

PRESENTER: Leila Chammaa. 

With Sinan Antoon (Iraq/USA), Inam Bioud (Algeria) and Hartmut Fähndrich (Switzerland) 

Is Arab literature becoming more popular in Germany? Who actually decides which Arabic works 

are translated and published? What criteria do German and other western publishers apply? What 

are the consequences for Arabic authors? Is there a kind of Arabic writing for Western publishers? 

Are the works selected representative of Arabic literature, or are there completely different literary 

“stars” in the Orient about whom readers in the West know nothing? Event in English. 

2


Kaleidoscope 

Péter Nádas (Hungary) 

PRESENTER: Lothar Müller 

The author and photographer is one of Hungarian contemporary literature's greats. His Book of 

Memories was hailed as an era-defining novel and has been compared to the works of Proust and 

Musil. He will read from “Die Bibel” (The Bible), his first published work, written in 1965. In the 

story, the then 23-year-old writer anticipated what would become one of his major themes: a child's 

attempts to cope with life under Stalin. The protagonist, the son of a high-level functionary, vents 

his sadistic tendencies on a maid from the countryside. When he finds a bible in his parents' 

bookcase and rips it to pieces in front of the incensed young girl, the conflict begins in earnest. 

With support from the Lelbach Foundation. 

Mon, 14.09. at 7 pm, Institut français de Berlin 

Speak, Memory 

François Marie Arouet Voltaire (Paris 1694 − Paris 1778) 

INTRODUCTION: Hartmut Diekmann, SPEAKERS: Nadja Schulz-Berlinghoff, Frank Arnold 

The fact that Voltaire was born and died in Paris says a lot about Paris, but nothing at all against 

Voltaire’s tempestuous, modern life: the Jesuit student’s sharp tongue got him beaten and thrown 

in the Bastille, but it also led to many experiences abroad, from which he always returned, inspired, 

to France, the country he mistrusted. The Marquise du Châtelet provided him with an 

extraordinarily creative home environment for over 16 years, in which the drama Mahomet was 

written. 

Mon, 14.09. at 7 pm, Kleisthaus 

Kaleidoscope 

Luis Leante (Spain): See How Much I Love You 

PRESENTER: Martin Jankowski, SPEAKER: Tatiana Nekrasov 

“A beautiful love story filled with impressive landscape imagery that grips the reader from the first 

page,” is how Mario Vargas Llosa praised See How Much I Love You, Luis Leante’s novel, which 

won the 2007 Premio Alfaguara. A strange coincidence leads Montse to search for her childhood 

love Santiago, who is believed to have died – an adventurous trip through the deserts of the 

Sahara begins. – Admission is free. 

Mon, 14.09. at 7 pm, Helene Nathan Bibliothek Neukölln 


Youssef Bazzi 

PRESENTER: Sven Arnold, SPEAKER: Stella Hilb 

In Yassir Arafat Looked at Me and Smiled a young boy reports how he was recruited into the 

Lebanese Civil War, where he fought and killed. All the while he goes about his normal life, goes to 

school, and has his first encounters with girls, pornography and alcohol. Violence as an everyday 

phenomenon leaves him cold, and war has become a game. Admission is free. 

Mon, 14.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Specials 

Richard David Precht (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Christine Eichel 

Philosopher, author and publicist Richard David Precht, who lives in Cologne and Luxembourg, 

became known to a wide audience with his bestseller Wer bin ich – und wenn ja wie viele? (Who 

am, I – and if so, how many?). He has addressed his new book Liebe. Ein unordentliches Gefühl 

(Love. An untidy feeling) at all those “who don't trust the advice of love experts, but still want to 

know what love is all about.” 

2

Mon, 14.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Andrés Neuman (Argentinia) 

PRESENTER: Michi Strausfeld, SPEAKER: Kathleen Gallego Zapata 

The 32-year-old prose writer and poet was awarded the prestigious Spanish Alfaguera Prize for El 

viajero del siglo (t: The traveller of the century). His novel is set in 19th century Germany, in the 

fictional town of Wandernburgo, south of Berlin. Not a historical novel, it is rather a futuristic novel 

that plays in the past with finely drawn characters and a powerful love story. 

Mon, 14.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Monica Ali (Britain) 

PRESENTER: Bernhard Robben, SPEAKER: Nina Petri 

Monica Ali’s début Brick Lane was nominated in 2003 for the highest British literary award, the Man 

Booker Prize for Fiction. With her work, the daughter of a Bengalese father and an English mother 

wanted to “defy a stereotype”: “We see a Sari or headscarf – and already form an opinion of the 

person. People come to me now and say that they look at their Indian or Bengalese neighbour in a 

completely different light.” The author will read from her new novel Hotel Imperial. 

Mon, 14.09. at 7:30 pm, Instituto Cervantes 

Reflections 

Who decides what we read? The power of literary awards 

PRESENTER: Maike Albath, PODIUM: Sigrid Löffler, Kristina Lugn and Enrique Vila-Matas 

What role do literature prizes play and how much do they influence us as readers? The guests will 

discuss this question from varying perspectives. Kristina Lugn is a member of the Nobel committee, 

which asks 700 specialists to nominate candidates for the prize each year. What criteria are 

applied in order to whittle down the mass of nominations to find the winner of the Nobel Prize for 

Literature? Sigrid Löffler quit the jury for the Heinrich-Heine Prize after slanderous accusations 

from other jurors were levelled against the prize winner Peter Handke. Enrique Vila-Matas has 

received numerous awards, including the Premio Herralde de Novela. What influence have these 

awards had on his literary work and on his success? – Admission is free. 

Mon, 14.09. at 7:30 pm, Heinrich Böll Stiftung / Belle étage 


North of the Sahara – A Maghrebi perspective on Africa’s development 

with Yassin Adnan (Morocco), Inam Bioud (Algeria), Rachid Boudjedra (Algeria) and Youssef 

Amine Elalamy (Morocco) 

PRESENTER: Sonja Hegazy 

Despite being firmly a part of the African continent, North Africa seems to be the border between 

two ‘worlds’, the African and the Arab. The paradigm of division has however largely been created 

by European colonialism and the regional studies which arose following the Second World War. 

But the Sahara had already been used as a bridge between cultures in earlier times by traders, 

holy men, missionaries and migrants. What relationship does North Africa have to the rest of the 

continent today? How aware is it of the continent’s problems, what interest does it have in its 

development, and what experience does it have with the people of Africa? The authors examine 

these questions and cast a Maghrebi eye on Africa. – Admission is free. 

Mon, 14.09. at 8 pm, Literaturhaus Berlin 

Reflections 

Gerald Uhlig-Romero (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Volker Panzer 

2

Und trotzdem lebe ich. Mein Kampf mit einer rätselhaften Krankheit (t: And nevertheless I am 

living. My struggles with a mysterious illness): Gerald Uhlig speaks impressively about his life-long 

struggle with a rare genetic defect and his decades-long odyssey among doctors, quacks, and 

faith-healers. How can one defeat the fear of premature death? The founder of “Café Einstein” tries 

to find answers to this question. 

Mon, 14.09. at 8 pm, Literaturladen Wist (Postsdam) 

Kalaidescope 

Eliot Weinberger (USA): An Elemental Thing 

PRESENTER: Carsten Wist SPEAKER: Beatrice Faßbender 

The New Yorker, one of the most politically committed journalists in the USA, brings together 4,000 

years of natural and human history in a fascinatingly enlightening and worldwide picture in which 

the word globalization suddenly takes on a new and, at the same time, warmer meaning. 

Mon, 14.09. at 8:30 pm, Institut Français de Berlin 


Marie Darrieusecq (France) 

PRESENTER and SPEAKER: Florian Höllerer 

Jean Luc Godard adapted her début novel Truismes (Pig Tales) for the cinema. This year the 

author is presenting her novel Tom est mort (t: Tom is dead), which appeared in France in 2007. A 

mother writes to resist forgetting: ten years ago, she lost her four-and-a-half year-old son Tom, and 

now she tells the story of his first days and their short time together. She describes her own 

suffering and the pain of loss. 

Mon, 14.09. at 8.30 pm, Maxim Gorki Theater / Studio stage 

Speak, Memory 

Tschingis Aitmatow (Sheker, Kyrgysztan 1928 – Nuremberg 2008) 

INTRODUCTION: Hartmut Diekmann, SPEAKER: Simone Kabst 

On this evening we will remember one of the most famous writers of the former Soviet Union. Born 

in Kyrgyzstan, he wrote mainly in Russian and described his Kyrgyzstan home in poetic images. 

Aitmatow died last year. This evening the love story Jamila, which brought him worldwide renown, 

will be presented. 

Mon, 14.09. at 9 pm, Babylon 

Kaleidoscope 

Paolo Giordano (Italy) 

PRESENTER: Thomas Wild, SPEAKER: Julia Jäger 

“Damn, what a great writer – and he's just 26!” exclaimed Andrea Camilleri in praise of Paolo 

Giordano's The Solitude of Prime Numbers. In 2008, the novel topped the best-seller list in Italy for 

months and was awarded the prestigious Premio Strega literature prize. In language as clear as it 

is hauntingly poetic, he tells the story of Alice and Mattia, two soul mates whose childhood dramas 

continue to affect their adult lives. 

Mon, 14.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Reflections 

Necla Kelek (Germany) 


“The chador turns women into depersonalised nothings,” says the confrontational sociologist and 

women’s rights activist, Necla Kelek. In writing her new book Bittersüße Heimat (t: Bittersweet 

Home) she travelled back and forth through Turkey, meeting with women’s organisations, Christian 

communities, and kidnapped brides. She reports from a country which is trapped between 

traditions and modernity and whose application for membership in the EU is still under discussion. 

2

Mon, 14.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Literary blogging 

Alban Nikolai Herbst (Germany) in discussion with Rehab Bassam (Egypt) 

The internet and above all web blogs are rapidly becoming literary forums for authors and 

publishers. Literary diaries, short stories, poems, and discussions – the possibilities and the 

diversity are enormous. In the Arab world, blogging can – as in the case of Rehab Bassam – lead 

to conventional paper publication. What new literary currents are being developed through 

blogging? Is a new, “de-anonymised” relationship between author and reader emerging? This 

event will be held in English. 

Mon, 14.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Michael Greenberg (USA) 

PRESENTER: Gabriele von Arnim SPEAKER: Burghart Klaußner 

In the autobiographical novel Hurry Down Sunshine, Greenberg depicts the dramatic psychotic 

episode of his then fifteen-year-old daughter Sally. He accompanies her to therapy and logs the 

development of the illness, her eventual recovery and reasonably normal life, as well as his own 

feelings of helplessness and the effects of her illness on his relationships and environment. 

2

Tues, 15.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Luis Leante 

PRESENTER: Michi Strausfeld, SPEAKER: Michaela Steiger 

“A beautiful love story filled with impressive landscape imagery that grips the reader from the first 

page,” is how Mario Vargas Llosa praised See How Much I Love You, Luis Leante’s novel, which 

won the 2007 Premio Alfaguara. A strange coincidence leads Montse to search for her childhood 

love Santiago, who is believed to have died – an adventurous trip through the deserts of the 

Sahara begins. 

Tues, 15.09. at 6 pm, JVA Tegel 

Specials - Literature Behind Bars 

John Wray (USA) reads from Lowboy 

PRESENTER: Martin Jankowski. Closed event. 

Tues, 15.09. at 7 pm, Institut français de Berlin 


Yvon Le Men (France) 

PRESENTER: Barbara Wahlster, SPEAKER: Vadim Glowna 

In the short, densely atmospheric narratives of his first prose collection, Le petit tailleur de short, 

the poet recalls his childhood and youth in Brittany, the land of the menhir. Today, Le Men has 

dedicated himself to the preservation of Breton culture, which his prize-winning poems recount. He 

will read from his poetry collection Besoin de poème. 

Tues, 15.09. at 7 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 

Specials 

German-Hungarian Literature Quartet – four young authors introduce themselves 

PRESENTER: Gregor Dotzauer SPEAKER: Julia Dietze and Rike Schmid 

Kornélia Deres (Hungary) was born in 1987. She is a poet, theatre critic, and founding editor of 

the journal Puskin Utca. She is currently studying Hungarian and English. She has been publishing 

her texts since 2003. 

Susanne Heinrich (Germany), born in 1985, studied at the German Institute for Literature in 

Leipzig. She has published one collection of stories and two novels, most recently So, jetzt sind wir 

alle mal glücklich (2009, t: So, now we’re all happy for once), which accompanies three couples 

through the no-man’s-land between single life and marriage. 

Lidi Kupcsik (Hungary), born in Miskolc in 1981, graduated with a masters in Hungarian Studies in 

2006. She publishes prose and poetry in anthologies. A collection of her poetry, a.k.a. was 

published in 2006. She says of herself, “I find writing hard and words scarce.” 

Judith Schalansky (Germany) was born in Greifswald in 1980. Her impressive literary début Blau 

steht dir nicht (2008, t: Blue doesn’t suit you) is about a childhood on Usedom. “The author’s 

skilled use of language and the poetry arising from the meeting of images and words are 

enthralling,” wrote the FAZ. Her Atlas der abgelegenen Inseln (t: Atlas of remote islands) will be 

published in Autumn 2009. With the kind support of the Lelbach-Stiftung. 

Tues, 15.09. at 7:30 pm, Instituto Cervantes 

Reflections 

Alma Guillermoprieto (Mexico) 

PRESENTER: Peter B. Schumann, SPEAKER: Beatrice Faßbender 

In 1970 the young Mexican Alma Guillermoprieto left New York in order to teach at the State Ballet 

School in Havana. Her book Dancing With Cuba: A Memoir of the Revolution describes an era 

during which an entire continent hung on Fidel Castro’s every word while the experiment he was 

3

talking about had already failed, when dancers and revolutionaries shared the same stage, and a 

pas de deux was transformed into a political act. – Admission is free. 

Tues, 15.09. at 7.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Reflections 

Raffaele Cantone (Italy) 

Roberto Giardina in discussion with Raffaele Cantone 

INTRODUCED and PRESENTED by: Laura Garavini 

SPEAKER: Frank Arnold 

Native of Naples, Raffaele Cantone was the lead prosecutor for the anti-mafia authorities and took 

part in all major legal actions against the Camorra from 1999 to 2007. Now the 45-year-old is 

presenting his sensational biography Allein für die Gerechtigkeit (For justice alone), which spent 

months at the top of the best-seller list in Italy. The author gives an impressive account of how he 

became organised crime's “enemy number one.” 

Tues, 15.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Specials 

New German Poetry 

PRESENTER: Michael Braun 

Daniela Danz (Germany), The “new voice of German poetry,” as Die Zeit calls her, was born in 

Eisenach in 1976. She published the poetry collection Serimunt in 2004, critical observations of 

everyday life in the East German countryside. Her new collection Pontus (2009) examines the 

history and myths of the countries around the Black Sea. 

Nico Bleutge (Germany) won the literary open mike competition in Berlin 2001, and won many 

other awards even before the publication of his first poetry collection. When klare konturen (t: clear 

lines) was published in 2006, it received unanimous praise from critics. His second collection 

Fallstreifen (t: Virga) was equally well-received. He is currently working on his first novel. 

Christoph Leisten (Germany) has been publishing his poems and essays since 1996. His texts 

are often set in Morocco, where he has undertaken more than two dozen trips. Marrakesch, 

Djemaa el Fna was extremely well-received by critics and readers in 2005. “The poem is a journey 

which does not know its own destination,” says Leisten of his poetry, which finds clarity in seeking. 

Volker Sielaff (Germany) lives as an author and freelance cultural journalist in Dresden. He has 

been publishing his subtle poems, essays, and reviews in renowned literary journals, anthologies, 

and daily newspapers since 1990. In 2003 his poetry collection Postkarte für Nofretete (t: Postcard 

for Nefertiti) was published. “A precise observer who manages without inflationary metaphors.” 

(taz) 

Tues, 15.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 


Khaled Al-Khamissi – Taxis in Cairo / Best-seller in Egypt 

PRESENTER: Christian Junge, SPEAKER: Nina West 

The journalist and writer Al-Khamissi reads from his novel Taxi: Cabbie Talk, which became a bestseller 

in his home country. Through 58 fictitious monologues, inspired by real conversations, the 

kaleidoscopic universe of the 80,000 taxi drivers is revealed as they fight their way through the 

daily snarl of the mega-city, Cairo. Taxi, somewhere between urban sociology, ethnology, and oral 

tradition, is written in everyday language as a poetic homage to the cabbies of Cairo. 

Tues, 15.09. at 7:30 pm, Felleshus der Nordischen Botschaften 

Specials 

Kjell Askildsen and Ingrid Z. Aanestad (Norway): ‘Discoveries’ 

PRESENTER and SPEAKER: Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel 

3

Almost half a century lies between Kjell Askildsen’s début and the publication of Ingrid Z. 

Aanestad’s first novel. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the great master of Norwegian literature 

chose the young author for this double reading. By the time her second novel Eg kjem med toget (t: 

I Will Come By Train) was published, she had been widely recognised as one of her country's 

greatest new talents. Both authors are celebrated by critics for their sparse, clear language, which 

even in its minimalism can be poetic and/or comical. There will be a reception in the Felleshus 

foyer after the readings. – Admission is free. 

Tues, 15.09. at 8 pm, Haus der Kulturen der Welt 


Assia Djebar (Algeria) is welcomed by Navid Kermani and Terézia Mora 

The “Literary Salon” at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, to which Navid Kermani and Terézi Mora 

invite international authors, begins with the renowned Algerian writer Assia Djebar. The subjects 

are texts, words, books, and writing. There will be readings from Assia Djebar’s novel Nulle part 

dans la maison de mon père (2008, t: Nowhere in my father’s house), but also from texts which 

move and have moved Djebar and will open her writer’s cosmos to the Salon audience. Admission 

€8.00 / reduced €6.00 

Tues, 15.09. at 8 pm, Radialsystem 

Specials 

Christina Weiss in conversation with Ingo Metzmacher 

Curtain! Discovering and experiencing opera – Ingo Metzmacher’s new book will be presented The 

conductor draws us in a highly entertaining and personal manner into the lively world of opera, 

which has fascinated people for centuries. Why has it lost none of its fascination to this day? What 

is the source of this irresistible magic? And what can music tell us that words cannot? No-one is 

better qualified to write about this than Ingo Metzmacher, who has worked as a conductor for more 

than 20 years and has collaborated with the most important singers and directors. Curtain! 

Discovering and experiencing opera is being presented for the first time. Admission €8.00 / 

reduced €6.00 

Tues, 15.09. at 8 pm, Literaturhaus Berlin 

Kaleidoscope 

Michael Greenberg (USA) 

PRESENTER: Marie Luise Knott, SPEAKER: Sven Phillip 

Greenberg was born in New York in 1952. He will read from his column, which he has been writing 

for the London-based Times Literary Supplement since 2003. These anecdotal short stories have 

been compiled in his autobiography Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer’s Life (2009). The book is 

populated by strange characters, and the tumultuous big city life of New York gives it a vivacious, 

pulsating atmosphere. 

Tues, 15.09. at 8:30 pm, Maxim Gorki Theater / Studio stage 

Speak, Memory 

Of gardens, heroes, and wine – Medieval Arabic poetry 

INTRODUCTION: Isabel Toral-Niehoff and Peter Pökel, SPEAKER: Burghart Klaußner 

Without Friedrich Rückert’s translations we would know nothing of the wealth and diversity of 

medieval Arabic literature. Inspired by his voluminous work, we can now hear the song of praise to 

the hero on his camel, worship of the city of Baghdad as the fulfilment of yearning for Paradise – 

and marvel at the Orient's “songs of feasting, drinking, and Venus.” 

Tues, 15.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Helmut Krausser (Germany) 

3

PRESENTER: Matthias Kalle 

For the first time the writer, poet, and stage author presents Einsteinian und Sex und Mitleid (t: 

Loneliness and sex and pity): a furious farce concerning intimate relationships. With numerous 

other novels, stories, poetry collections, and theatre and audio works, Krausser has secured a 

place for himself in German contemporary literature. His texts happily mix pathos and irony, cliché 

and nuance, slapstick and horror, tenderness and vulgarity. 

Tues, 15.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Kaleidoscope 

Gerhard Falkner (Germany) 


After his celebrated hunt for Brüno the bear, Falkner returns from the mountains to the city in his 

new novel Auf Liebe und Tod (t: Here's to love and death). He leaves the dangerous bear (who 

gets killed in the end) for a dangerous woman (who gets killed in the end). He has gone from the 

clutch and grind of Stifter and Hemingway to the thistles and thorns of Chekhov and Gogol. 

Tues, 15.09. at 9 pm, Babylon 

Kaleidoscope 

Robert Littell (USA) 

PRESENTER: Knut Elstermann, SPEAKER: Matthias Scherwenikas 

In The Stalin Epigram, the master of the US espionage thriller offers us a tale about a sinister 

period in Russian history based on one man's personal history. Moscow, 1934: the once famous 

poet Ossip Mandelstam has fallen out of favour. Unwavering in his belief in the power of words, he 

wants to write a poem that will make the people rise up against Stalin. Yet any one of its 16 verses 

could spell his death. “Magnificent,” says Publishers Weekly of the novel. 

Tues, 15.09. at 9 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 

Speak, Memory 

Tajjib Salich (al-Dabba/Sudan 1928 – London 2009) 

INTRODUCTION: Andreas Pflitsch, Speaker: Roland Schäfer 

With the Sudanese cult writer’s death this year, the most important Arab storyteller since Nagib 

Machfus has passed away. His work only spans four volumes, including the novel The Time of the 

Northern Migration, his account of his journey into the northern heart of darkness, and the story 

collection A Handful of Dates. His writings wander between his birthplace, where the Nile describes 

a great curve, and London, where he died. 

Tues, 15.09. at 10.30 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 

Speak, Memory 

Sargon Boulos (Habbanija, Iraq 1944 – Berlin 2007) 

INTRODUCTION: Fadhil al-Azzawi, SPEAKER: Susanna Kraus 

Boulos was among the most important innovators of Arabic poetry. As he was not aligned with any 

political current he was denied mass acceptance, but he did have enormous influence on the 

younger Arabic poets. Having fled Iraq early as an Assyrian Christian, he joined the modernists 

grouped around the literary journal Shi'r (t: Poetry) in Beirut at the end of the 1960s. He 

encountered American beat poetry in California. He has translated texts from Shakespeare to W.H. 

Auden into Arabic. He died in Berlin in 2007. 

3

Wed, 16.09. at 4 pm, JVA Moabit 

Kaleidoscope_Literature Behind Bars 

Robert Littell (USA): The Stalin Epigram 

Reading and disscussion with long-term prison inmates. 


Closed Event 

Wed, 16.09. at 7 pm, Babylon 

Kaleidoscope 

Edward St Aubyn (Great Britain) 

PRESENTER: Gabriele von Arnim, SPEAKER: Frank Arnold 

Mother's Milk, the cuttingly humorous family portrait written by London native Edward St Aubyn, 

was short-listed for the Booker Prize, won the Prix Femina as well as the Southbank Award and 

brought the author international success. No doubt: For anyone who has drunk this mother's milk, 

the term “postpartum depression” now has a whole new meaning! 

Wed, 16.09. at 7 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 

Focus Arab World - Literatures of the World 

Repression and War in Books 

PRESENTER: Sven Arnold, SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

Youssef Bazzi (Lebanon). In Yassir Arafat Looked at Me and Smiled a young boy reports how he 

was recruited into the Lebanese Civil War, where he fought and killed. All the while, he goes about 

his normal life, goes to school and has his first encounters with girls, pornography and alcohol. 

Violence as an everyday phenomenon leaves him cold, and war has become a game. 

Sinan Antoon (Iraq/USA). Antoon’s début I’jaam, an Iraqi Rhapsody is a plea for the power of 

words: an imprisoned student writes his life story in secret between bouts of torture and humiliation 

by the guards. Marked by the surveillance and restrictions under Saddam Hussein, his story has 

brief glimpses of private happiness. Memory and dreams flow together in his writing. 

Wed, 16.09. at 7 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Kaleidoscope 

Kjell Askildsen (Norway) 

PRESENTER and SPEAKER: Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel 

No one else says so much in so few words: on September 30 th , the Norwegian master of the short 

story marked his 80 th birthday by presenting a new collection under the title Alt som for (t: 

Everything as before). Reviver of the Norwegian novella, he has influenced generations of authors 

throughout Scandinavia with his unmistakable, minimalist style. “A great storyteller … honest, 

disturbing and merciless … in content, equal to Kafka … and Camus.” (El País) 

Wed, 16.09. at 7 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Norbert Gstrein (Austria) 


In dry, melancholy language, Die Winter im Süden (Winters in the South) tells the story of a 

Croatian fascist who immigrated to Argentina after World War Two, leaving his family behind. 

When he returns in 1990 and tries to relive his days in the Ustascha, his daughter is crushed 

between awareness of her father's guilt and her husband's self-righteous opportunism. “An 

exceptional war novel,” according to Die Zeit, that creates a lasting, threatening feeling as vague as 

it is constant. 

Wed, 16.09. at 7:30 pm, Instituto Cervantes 

Kaleidoscope 

3

Pablo Ramos (Argentina) 

PRESENTER: Michi Strausfeld, SPEAKER: Matthias Scherwenikas 

Pablo Ramos won international fame in 2007 with his début novel The Origin of Sadness, which 

describes the end of childhood amidst losers, freaks, alcoholics, and cynics in a dilapidated district 

ruled by violence and despair. The background is Argentina, morally and economically bankrupted 

by the military dictatorship. 

Wed, 16.09. at 8 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Specials_Concert 

Wolf Biermann (Germany) 

Berlin, Du deutsche deutsche Frau (t: Berlin, you German, German woman) is a poetry collection 

released in 2008. No poet in post-war Germany has so passionately and prolifically serenaded 

Berlin as Wolf Biermann. In 2007, he became an honorary citizen of Berlin and in 2008 received an 

honorary doctorate from Humbolt University in Berlin. It was there that Biermann studied in the 

1950s before becoming assistant director of the ‘Berlin Ensemble’ and working with composer 

Hanns Eisler. Biermann has been composing songs and poems since 1960. His radical criticism of 

the party dictatorship in the GDR led to his expatriation from the East German state in 1976. Since 

that time, he has lived in the city of his birth, Hamburg. 

Wed, 16.09. at 8 pm, Museum of Islamic Art / Mshatta Hall 


Randa Jarrar (Kuwait/USA) 

PRESENTER: Sawsan Chebli 

The author, born in 1978, won the Hepwood Award in 2007 for her début novel. Map of Home 

(published in German under the title Weiße Lügen) tells the story of the young Nidali, who grows up 

in Kuwait, Egypt, and the USA. Humorous and cheeky, the adolescent heroine reveals to us an 

Arab-American immigrant and family saga for our times. Part of the “Nichts of Ramadan” event 

series (from 3.09.-21.09. www.naechtedesramadan.de) in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy 

Literature Series, Hoffmann and Campe and the State Museums of Berlin. Ticket reservations at 

030-72664-24242 or service@smb.museum Admission is free. 

Wed, 16.09. at 8 pm, daadgalerie 

Reflections 

Amir Hassan Cheheltan (Iran) and Navid Kermani (Germany) 

The crumbling façade of unity 

PRESENTER: Jamsheed Faroughi 

Since the controversial presidential elections of June 12, the mass protests in Iran have come to no 

clear end. The violent death of the student Neda, the swearing-in of the new-old President 

Mahmoud Ahmaddinejad and the opening of the show trials have added fuel to the fire. Even in the 

conservative camp, the façade of unity is beginning to crumble. Cracks are beginning to form 

between the council of guardians, the tarnished President and Ajatollah Chamenei. Amir Hassan 

Cheheltan and Navid Kermani will discuss the perspective of the protest movement, unstable 

alliances within the government and the political future of the president. 

Wed, 16.09. at 8 pm, Kulturhaus Mitte 

Specials 

With Giwi Margwelaschwili (GermanyGeorgia) and Rita Dahl (Finland). 


The famous Finnish poet will present her poems for the first time in German, and the Georgian 

Berliner will read from his legendary new novel Der Kantakt. Tickets are only available at the door. 

Admission €5.00 / reduced €3.00 

3

Wed, 16.09. at 8 pm, Literaturladen Wist (Postdam) 

Kalaidescope 

Gerhard Falkner (Germany): Auf Liebe und Tod 

PRESENTER: Carsten Wist 

After his celebrated hunt for Brüno the bear, Falkner returns from the mountains to the city in his 

new novel Auf Liebe und Tod (t: Here's to love and death). He leaves the dangerous bear (who 

gets killed in the end) for a dangerous woman (who gets killed in the end). He has gone from the 

clutch and grind of Stifter and Hemingway to the thistles and thorns of Chekhov and Gogol. – 

Admission free. 

Wed, 16.09. at 8:30 pm, Maxim Gorki Theater / Studio stage 

Speak, Memory 

Paul Scheerbart (Danzig 1863 – Berlin 1915) 

INTRODUCTION: Gregor Pohl, SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

Paul Scheerbart has always been fascinated by Utopias. He spent years building a perpetuum 

mobile, always convinced that he was just a small step from completing it. Most of his works are 

also Utopian: with Der Tod der Barmakiden (t: The death of the Barmakids) and Der Alte Orient (t: 

The Old Orient) we have two insights into Scheerbart’s fantastic land of tomorrow. 

Wed, 16.09. at 9 pm, Babylon 

Kaleidoscope 

David Wroblewski (USA) 

PRESENTER: Tanya Lieske, SPEAKER: Ulrich Matthes 

The New York Times describes The Story of Edger Sawtelle as “a great, big, mesmerizing read.” 

Born mute, Edgar has a particularly close relationship to the dogs his parents breed on their 

Wisconsin farm. When he is forced to leave home, he is dependent on the animals' help as he 

moves through breathtaking landscapes. A gripping family saga and an adventure novel, depicting 

a young man's struggle to survive in the wilderness. 

Wed, 16.09. at 9 pm, Babylon_Kleiner Saal 

Specials 

Torsten Schulz (Germany) 

SPEAKER: Milan Peschel 

"Revolution and crabs": love and betrayal in era of social change; life's promises that are not 

fulfilled in the way we hoped. Torsten Schultz (Raus aus der Haut, Boxhanger Platz) casts a glaring 

light on revolutions large and small. "Wonderfully sad narratives reminiscent of film shorts," said 

Spiegel Online, and in Die Zeit, "well-focused close-ups – condensed into fascinating explorations 

of the human soul." Tickets: €8 

Wed, 16.09. at 9 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin 


Poetry meets Melody 

Girgis Shoukry (Egypt) and José F. A. Oliver (Germany) 

The German-Andalusian José F.A. Oliver and the Coptic Egyptian Girgis Shoukry give us an 

evening of poetry and music. Floating between the flamenco sounds of his birthplace and his own 

poetry, Olive will accompany Shoukry’s poems, which, in the author’s own words, “should look like 

people on the street.” 

Wed, 16.09. at 10pm, DAAD Galerie 

Reflections 

Worldwide Readings for Democracy and Freedom in Iran 

With Amir Hassan Cheheltan, Navid Kermani and others 

3

PRESENTER: Navid Kermani SPEAKER: Bahman Nirumand 

Some weeks ago, on September 16th, the international literature festival berlin called cultural 

institutions, theatres, radio stations and the general public to a worldwide reading of the fatwa of 

Grand Ayatolla Montazeri. The goal of the events and activities connected with the reading is to 

show unmistakable solidarity with the democratic opposition in Iran and to support the protest 

against the imprisonment of activists for democracy and the show trials. – Admission free 

Wed, 16.09. at 10:30 pm, Babylon 

Kaleidoscope 

Hanif Kureishi (Great Britain) 

PRESENTER: Marius Meller, SPEAKER: Vanessa Remy 

People are by nature crazy – that’s completely normal. Jamal knows it too well. Every day he 

unlocks the wild fantasies, dreams, and wishes of the patients on his couch. He seldom speaks of 

his own secret, but when he does, his story is incredible. An enthralling trip and “a fascinating 

social portrait of London today,” wrote Daniel Bax in the taz. Hanif Kureishi’s novel Something To 

Tell You (2008) – sad and sensual, gripping and comic. 

3

Thurs, 17.09. at 5 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

International Children’s and Youth Literature 

Jutta Bauer (Germany) 

With her extensive œuvre, Jutta Bauer numbers among the most well-known illustrators in 

Germany. Many of her children's book concepts have become classics. In 2008, she was rewarded 

with a nomination for the highest international honour in children's literature, the Astrid Lindgren 

Memorial Award, and just recently with a further nomination for this prize as well as for the Hans 

Christian Andersen Award for 2010. The illustrator will present a show of her life's work from the 

time of her studies to the present day. (13 years and older) 



Maïssa Bey (Algeria) 

PRESENTER: Christine Belakhdar, SPEAKER: Michaela Steiger 

Twenty-five chapters and twenty-five pictures to describe 132 years of French colonialism in 

Algeria. In her novel Pierre Sang Papier ou Cendre (2008), Maïssa Bey assumes the innocent 

perspective of a child, ageless guardian of memory, to make us witnesses to “Madame LaFrance’s” 

horrific, unstoppable civilizing march through history. 

Thurs, 17.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Kalaidescope 

John Banville (Ireland) 

PRESENTER: Angela Spitzig SPEAKER: Nina West 

"One succumbs to the shadowy charms of 1950s Dublin and can positively smell the cigarette 

smoke and the Irish beer," writes The Times Literary Supplement about John Banville's novel The 

Silver Swan, written under the alias Benjamin Black. Investigating a dubious suicide, pathologist 

and recovering alcoholic Quirke gets himself entangled in a scandal which pulls him into a swirl of 

sexual obsessions and dangerous deceptions. 


Specials 

Yangzom Brauen (Switzerland) 

PRESENTER: Volker Panzer 

In Eisenvogel (t: Iron bird), the daughter of a Swiss father and a Tibetan mother tells the story of 

her grandmother, who was driven out of the seclusion of her convent and into the barren mountains 

of Tibet. She depicts her mother's path as she escaped the Chinese by fleeing to Switzerland. And 

Yangzom Brauen tells her own story, how her acting career led her to Hollywood and her activism 

for a free Tibet landed her in jail. It is a narrative of three generations, about the loss of home and 

life caught between two worlds. 

Thurs, 17.09. at 7 pm, Institut français de Berlin 

Speak, Memory 

Denis Diderot (Langres 1713 − Paris 1784) 

INTRODUCTION: Hartmut Diekmann, SPEAKER: Roland Schäfer 

The Enzyklopädie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers – with definite 

articles – was reprinted ten times during the 18 th century alone. Few other works have so 

profoundly influenced thinking in the West. And one man, seen in a quotation from Paul Hazard, 

embodied this: “He is so picturesque in his great topcoat of grey plush, the pockets of which are 

stuffed with books.” Diderot – the living encyclopaedia. 

3

Thurs, 17.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Aris Fioretos (Sweden) 

MODERATION: Wilfried F. Schoeller 

Born in Göteborg to Greek-Austrian parents, Fioretos will present his yet unpublished work Der 

Letzte Grieche (t: The last Greek). Since his début Delandets bok, Fioretos has published 

numerous collections of short prose. His last collection to be released in German was Das Maß 

eines Fußes (2008, t: The measure of a foot) – elegant and compelling texts on the boundary 

between fiction and essay. 

Thurs, 17.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Kaleidoscope 

Isaac Rosa (Spain) 

PRESENTER: Ralph Amann SPEAKER: Sven Philipp 

Rosa’s novel Life in Red (2004) was lauded by critics, won several prizes, and was filmed by 

Andrés Linares. Franco’s Spain: a university professor of baroque poetry and a student vanish 

without a trace. Layer by layer, Rosa unveils the secret of their fate, and provides a portrait of the 

police terror of repressive regimes around the world which goes far beyond a single case of 

brutality under Franco. 

Thurs, 17.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

International Children’s and Youth Literature 

Klaus Kordon (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Shelly Kupferberg 

Native Berliner Klaus Kordon (Germany) is one of the most significant authors of German-language 

children's and youth literature. He will read from his new autobiographical novel Auf der 

Sonnenseite (t: On the sunny side) as well as its forerunner Krokodil im Nacken (t: Crocodile 

breathing down my neck), in which he writes about a failed attempt to escape East Germany, one 

year as a political prisoner in the GDR and, finally, successful emigration to the FRG in 1973. – 14 

years and older 

Thurs, 17.09. at 7:30 pm, Instituto Cervantes 

Speak, Memory 

Juan Carlos Onetti _projektONETTI_dance performance 

A piece by Valentina Torrado (Uruguay) and Alfredo Mena (Spain) 

The “projektONETTI” is dedicated as a homage to the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti on his 

centennial. An international team from Uruguay, Spain, Germany, Kazakhstan, Finland and 

Ecuador has interpreted Onetti’s work, which is seen as having paved the way for modern Latin 

American literature. An evening in which modern literature, new music, dance theatre and video 

installations come together: between nations and times, between fiction and fact, and reality as a 

fiction constructed out of the repetition of what is unchanging. In cooperation with the Instituto 

Cervantes and the Uruguayan Embassy. Admission is free. 


Specials_New German Voices 

Dorothee Elmiger (Switzerland), Kristof Magnusson (Iceland/Germany), Nadja Wünsche 

(Germany) and Judith Schalansky (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Thomas Klupp 

For the second time, the ilb is presenting young, talented authors, whose work shows such literary 

promise that they might one day achieve international acclaim. You may look forward to the 

remarkable tone of these four “New German Voices” and to the presenter Thomas Klupp, whose 

début Paradiso (2009) won unconditional praise from the reviewer in Die Zeit. 

3

Thurs, 17.09. at 8 pm, / Literaturhaus_Kaminraum 

Specials 

Pier Paolo Pasolini – Who I am, Exhibition opening 

Introduction to the exhibition: Peter Erismann and Ricarda Gerosa. Film excerpts: Pasolini as a 

guest of Walter Höllerer’s event series “Optische Literatur” on 12.1.1966 in the Berlin 

Kongresshalle. Reader: Frank Arnold. 

18.09. at-22.11.2009. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 2 pm, -7 pm, Thursday: 2 pm, - 9 pm, 

Saturday: 11 am, - 9 pm, Sunday: 11 am, - 7 pm, Admission €5 / €3. Accompanying the exhibition 

will be a broad programme of events with ‘Long Nights’, film screenings, lectures, podium 

discussions and musical performances. 

Thurs, 17.09. at 8:30 pm, Institut français de Berlin 

Kaleidoscope 

Mathias Enard (France) 

PRESENTER: Barbara Wahlster, SPEAKER: Nina West 

The multilingual Candide Prize winner for 2008 studied in Iran, Lebanon, and Egypt, and teaches 

Arabic at the University of Barcelona. The main character in his new novel Zone is also welltravelled. 

The mysterious passenger takes a night train from Milan to Rome in order to sell a 

briefcase full of documents to the Vatican. The ageing secret agent looks back on his life like a 

modern Odysseus, a life which was closely intertwined with the violent history of Europe in the 20th 

century. 

Thurs, 17.09. at 8:30 pm, Maxim Gorki Theater / Studio stage 

Speak, Memory 

Panait Istrati (Brǎila, Romania 1884 − Bucharest 1935) 

INTRODUCTION: Marianne Geitel, SPEAKER: Matthias Scherwenikas 

Kyra Kyralina, The Thistles of Baragan, and more: “Panait Istrati is neither communist nor 

bourgeois, neither worker nor intellectual […] He is the soul that fights for freedom in the body of a 

person” (Nikos Kazantzakis). Born in Rumania, he lived and wrote in France. When his friends 

abandoned him, he returned to Romania to die. 

Thurs, 17.09. at 9 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 


Göran Sonnevi (Sweden) 

PRESENTER: Klaus-Jürgen Liedtke 

The recipient of the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize reads from his works Sprache; Werkzeug; 

Feuer (t: Language; tool; fire) and Das brennende Haus (t: The burning house), an anthology of 

collected poems. With a songlike flowing style, accomplished without the use of typical metered 

accents, but instead utilizing pauses between halting and flowing phrases, Sonnevi combines 

motifs from his comprehensive repertoire of themes. 


Specials 

Veit Heinichen (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Marius Meller 

The author believes that crime fiction is an ideal means of making the workings of society 

transparent. In his new novel Die Ruhe des Stärkeren (t: The calm of the strong), he once again 

dispatches the witty, intractable Commissar Laurenti to the border region around his adopted home 

town of Trieste, where organised crime meets unscrupulous economic leaders. Enriched with black 

humour and addresses for gourmets, the author’s crime fiction, which has also been adapted for 

television, reflects upon the political-economic changes in Europe. 

4


Kaleidoscope 

John Wray (USA/Austria) 

PRESENTER: Bernhard Robben 

The FAZ wrote: “His début The Right Hand of Sleep was already a small miracle. Lowboy […] has 

the stuff of classics.” The 16-year-old protagonist is schizophrenic. Having fled from an asylum, he 

sets off on a manic hunt through New York’s subway tunnels. He wants to save the world from an 

apocalypse that is predicted in codes and signs which only he can understand. 

4



Erasmus Schöfer (Germany) 


With Winterdämmerung (2008, t: Winter’s dawn), the fourth and final volume of the period series 

Die Kinder des Sisyfos (t: The children of Sisyphus) has now been published. In the large-scale 

quartet, Schöfer reflects back on the left-wing protest movement from 1968 to 1990. Critics have 

placed his novels in the tradition of Peter Weiss and Uwe Johnson. As a proponent of “litérature 

engagée” Schöfer demonstrates the contribution literature can make to an interpretation of the 

past. 


Specials_Scritture Giovani 

Paul Brodowsky (Germany), Gabriele Dadati (Italy), Owen Martell (Britain) and Céline Robinet 

(France) 

PRESENTER: Thomas Klupp, SPEAKERS: Stella Hilb and Marie Löcker 

“4:00 a.m.” is the project theme for 2009. at This is the point of departure from which the authors 

set out to “awaken” audiences at three hosting literature festivals – the festivaletteratura in 

Mantova, the Guardian Hay Festival and the international literature festival berlin – each with his or 

her distinct writing style. 

Fri, 18.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer 

Kaleidoscope 

Amir Hassan Cheheltan (Iran) 

PRESENTER: Sven Arnold SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

Amir Hassan Cheheltan, born in Tehran in 1956, is known for his insightful reports on Iran’s 

political situation in the newspapers Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung. In 

the Islamic Republic, authors are no longer allowed to write uncensored texts. For this reason, his 

new novel, Teheran Revolutionsstrasse (t: Tehran revolution street), will initially be published only 

in Germany. The author draws a picture if Iranian society in this work, highlighting the divide 

between modernity and tradition which threatens to destroy a young couple’s marriage. 

Fri, 18.09. at 7:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Atiq Rahimi (Afghanistan/France) 

PRESENTER: Omar Akbar, SPEAKER: Michaela Steiger 

In 2008, the Kabul-born author won France's most important literary honour, the Prix Goncourt, for 

his latest novel Stein der Geduld (t: The stone of patience). The story centres on a wife who 

devotedly cares for her severely wounded husband. Without knowing whether or not he can hear 

her, she speaks more and more freely about her feelings of marital, social and religious oppression 

during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan. 

Fr, 18.09. at 7:30 pm, Instituto Cervantes 

Speak, Memory 

Juan Carlos Onetti_projektONETTI_dance performance 

A piece by Valentina Torrado (Uruguay) and Alfredo Mena (Spain) 

The “projektONETTI” is dedicated in homage to the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti on his 

centennial. An international team from Uruguay, Spain, Germany, Kazakhstan, Finland and 

Ecuador has interpreted Onetti’s work, which is seen as having paved the way for modern Latin 

American literature. An evening in which modern literature, new music, dance theatre, and video 

installations come together: between nations and times, between fiction and fact, and reality as a 

4

fiction constructed out of the repetition of what is unchanging. In cooperation with the Instituto 

Cervantes and the Uruguayan Embassy. Admission is free. 

Fri, 18.09. at 8 pm, Literaturhaus Berlin_Kaminraum 

Reflections 

Peter Kammerer: Pasolini and Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History 

Walter Benjamin’s description of the Angel of History corresponds strikingly to Pasolini’s fate. What 

the Angel wanted, “To stay, to wake the dead, and to piece together that which was broken,” is 

exactly what Pasolini wanted in his poetry – and it is something at which he failed. Peter 

Kammerer, born in Offenburg in 1938, has taught for years at the University of Urbino. As a 

translator, editor, and commentator, as well as the author of many essays, he has worked to 

highlight the provocative and defiant elements in Pasolini’s work. Following the event – at around 

9:30 pm – there will be a screening of the film Pasolini l’enragé (Pasolini, the furious, F 1966/1991, 

65 min, French w/subtitles). The director and scriptwriter Jean-André Fieschi spoke with Pasolini in 

his flat in the Via Eufrate, on location in the suburbs of Rome, and on the beach at Ostia. 

Fri, 18.09. at 8:30 pm, Maxim Gorki Theater / Studio stage 

Speak, Memory 

Franz Werfel (Prague 1890 – Beverly Hills 1945) and Victor Gardon (Van, Armenia 1903 − Paris 

1973) 

INTRODUCTION to Franz Werfel: Rolf Hosfeld; INTRODUCTION to Victor Gardon: Christine 

Gardon 

SPEAKER: Roland Schäfer 

“Don’t incite controversy against the Turks” was supposed to have been scrawled by Franz Werfel 

in the margins of the manuscript for The 40 Days of Musa Dagh. This book about the Armenian 

genocide was burned in Nazi Germany in 1933, the year of its publication. 

Viktor Gardon (actually Gahram Vakavian) had to endure the massacres in Armenia as a child. In 

The Fountains of the Past, the second volume of his Le Vanetsi trilogy, he tackles the origins of the 

genocide and the beginning of his exile. 


Kaleidoscope 

Sebastian Barry (Ireland) 

PRESENTER: Bernhard Robben, SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

Barry often draws inspiration for his subtle novels about the dramatic history of Ireland from his 

own family history. This is also the case in The Secret Scripture (2008), in which Roseanne, almost 

100 years old and stuck for years in a psychiatric asylum, recounts her family’s history. 


Kaleidoscope 

Monika Maron (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Florian Höllerer 

“B. is the filthiest city in Europe,” wrote Monika Maron in her début novel, Flight of Ashes. “B” 

stands for Bitterfeld, which is even today synonymous with an ailing economy and polluted 

environment. 30 years later, Maron went back to the city and reported on the changes she found 

there. In her newest novel Ach Glück (Oh, happiness), Maron tries to answer the question of 

whether or not life can turn out well. Her 54-year-old protagonist breaks out of her daily rut and 

travels to Mexico – in search of a new beginning. 


Kaleidoscope 

Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya/USA) 

4

PRESENTER: Marie-Luise Knott, SPEAKER: Sven Philipp 

The author, who became director of the Chinua Achebe Center at Bart College this year, was 

awarded the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002 for his story “How To Write About Africa,” 

published in the Neuen Rundschau. This year the Kenya native will present his new work, which 

was translated into German exclusively for the ilb. 

4

Sat, 19.09. at 1 pm, Trattoria "A´Muntagnola" 

Reflections 

Il Silencio -- The great silence. An anti-mafia police offer speaks. 

With Luigi Cornaglia and Paolo Emilio Petrillo 

The Mafia business is thriving like never before: often it is shockingly quiet and discreet. That is the 

experience of Gianni Palagonia (President of the organisation "Mafia? No, thank you!"), who 

worked for ten years as a police officer in the fight against organised crime. Captivating and 

unsparing in his book Il Silencio, he tells of the gruelling battle against suspected gangsters and a 

corrupt society, whose members secretly envied the Mafia its power. Gianni Palagonia is a 

pseudonym. Paolo Emilio Petrillo lives today in Berlin and Rome. He works as a correspondent for 

the Italian newspaper il Riformista. – Admission free 


Reflections 

Rolf Hosfeld (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Hans Christoph Buch 

Rolf Hosfeld’s new book, The Spirits He Called Forth, is about Marx. Considering his false 

historical-philosophical speculations, it is somewhat inevitable that his political impact be subject to 

the law of unintended consequences. Is he responsible? Yes and no. Even irretrievably failed 

prophecies can offer stimulating lessons to critical and unbiased contemporary thinkers. 


Kaleidoscope 

Siegfried Lenz (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Volker Weidermann, SPEAKER: Burghard Klaußner 

“We must thank Siegfried Lenz for a poetic book. It may well be his most beautiful,” said Marcel 

Reich-Ranicki of Schweigeminute (t: A minute of silence). Siegfried Lenz writes with masterful 

sensitivity, with discretion and humour about how the love between Stella and Christian began, why 

their passion had to face up to reality, and how then, all of a sudden, everything was over – and yet 

not over. 

Sat, 19.09. at 6 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

Kaleidoscope 

Colum McCann (Ireland/USA) 

PRESENTER: Bernhard Robben, SPEAKER: Frank Arnold, MUSIC: Joe Hurley 

McCann’s most recent novel is being hailed as a masterpiece. Let The Great World Spin is a tale 

set against the backdrop of a tightrope act between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974, 

told through completely unrelated personal accounts, as a prelude to the events of September 11. 

As a journalist, he has been published worldwide in newspapers such as The New York Times, 

The Guardian, Le Figaro, and La Repubblica. 


Specials 

Concert with Bachar Zarkan (Syria) and Ensemble 

The singer Bachar Zarkan sets poems of Islamic mysticism to music and arranges pieces for 

modern Arabic lyrics, including the poems of Mahmoud Darwish. Beginning in the 1980s with 

political song-writing, he later concerned himself with Sufi poetry. He has performed tours 

throughout France, Germany, England, the USA, and most Arab countries. Zarkan has founded 

several musical groups and has acted in both theatre and television. 

4


Reflections 

Colum McCann (Ireland/USA) and Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya/USA) 

in a discussion about: Connectedness: values in a changing society 


The winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing Binyavanga Wainaina and the journalist and writer 

Colum McCann are both striking in their ability to seismographically detect changes in society and 

to articulate those changes in literature. No one could better capture in words the direction our 

society is going in in the wake of the economic and financial crisis or the ways in which the recently 

ignited discourse on values may have opened up possibilities for a more just world. 

Sun, 20.09. at 8 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Main Stage 

Specials 

The Forgotten Liberators (À nos morts), 

Hiphop Musical in Memory of the French Colonial Soldiers 

German Premiere: with Yan Gilg, Farba MBaye, Maeva Heitz, Sovannak Nam, Ibrahima 

MBodji, Christophe Roser, Yassine Allouache, Mickaël Stoll 

Strongly influenced by the hip-hop culture of Strasburg’s suburbs, this performance combines 

poetic texts with an urban sound and contemporary choreography – all of which takes place in front 

of a stage set including historical photographs and film excerpts. The play remembers the millions 

of soldiers from the French colonies who fought for France on the front lines in 1914-18, and who 

helped to free the world from Fascism during the Second World War. Largely forgotten today, the 

project “Mémoires Vives” pays them respect by bringing an important but neglected chapter of 

history to the stage in contemporary form. Presented by AfricAvenir International e.V. 

www.africavenir.org 

4

9/10/11.10.2009 at 8pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

BurkaBondage – No Ordinary Experience 

Premiere 

with Yui Kawaguchi, Vania Rovisco, Monireh Hashemi, Dance. Acci Babba, Video. 

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, Music. 

After the Taliban blew up the famous Bamyian Buddha in 2001, director Helena Waldmann 

travelled to the richest land and the poorest land in Asia. In her new production, she closely 

examines the ways in which Afghan and Japanese culture disguise the female body. With two 

dancers who love extremes, an artist who erases the body and a drumming genius. A coproduction 

of the Berliner Festspiele and the ilb. Supported by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds 

Further information under www.ecotopidance.com and www.berlinerfestspiele.de 

17.11.09 at 8 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage 

An evening of solidarity – an evening for the persecuted in Iran 

Berlin actors read literature bearing witness to a half century of oppression. In 1953, the night of 

despotism fell across the country. Though regimes have changed, it continues still today. Literature 

from Iran as a sign of human suffering and love of freedom. Corinna Harfouch, Jutta Hoffmann, 

Jürgen Holtz and Ulrich Matthes will read. Writers in Prison/P.E.N. in cooperation with the 

international literature festival berlin. Tickets €10. 

4

“International Children's and Youth Literature” – Public Events 

Thurs, 10.09. at 7:30 pm, PHILIPP-SCHAEFFER-BIBLIOTHEK / KINDERBIBLIOTHEK 

Maritgen Matter (Netherlands), Marjaleena Lembcke (Finland/Germany) and Octavia Monaco 

(Italy) 

Modern Fairy Tale world full of seekers. 

In this evening event, the three authors will offer us a glimpse of the creative process behind their 

fairy tale book projects. The story of exceptional journeys toward “experience” and the emotional 

relationship between natural enemies, the sheep and the wolf (Maritgen Matter: Ein Schaf fürs 

Leben (t: a sheep for life)); the King's family who search for their author in the midst of writer's 

block in order that their – and the author's – story may be retold (Marjaleena Lembcke: Ein 

Märchen ist ein Märchen ist ein Märchen (t: A fairy tale is a fairy tale is a fairy tale)); as well as the 

extraordinary fairy tale adaptation of a real princess who emancipates herself and breaks free of 

others' expectations (Octavia Monaco: Una principessa sul pisello (A princess on the pea)). All 

these offer plenty of material for a discussion – of, for example, the possibilities and limits of fairy 

tales – and a story segment. What do fairy tales mean today? And what possibilities do writers of 

fairy tales have to participate the the children's literature debates concerning identity, stereotypes, 

or even the relationship between fiction and reality? What can we reasonably expect from 

elementary age readers? For adults, youth, fairy tale fans, readers of children's books and art 

lovers. Free Entrance. 

Fri, 11.09. at 7 pm, GRIPS MITTE (Podewil) 

Graham Gardner (Great Britain) and Valérie Zenatti (France/Israel) 

Young people in discussion… 

PRESENTER: BLI BerlinerLiteraturInitiative / BerlinerLeseratten 

Prepared and moderated by young adult participants in the BerlinerLiteraturInitiative, this evening's 

event will present two young adult books, Inventing Elliot written by Englishman Graham Gardner 

and A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Frenchwoman Valérie Zenatti. In his captivating début novel, 

which subtly alludes to George Orwell's 1984, Graham Gardner constructs a narrative altercation 

between the themes of power and followers, fear and violence, conformity and individuality, as well 

as the roles of victim and victimizer. The novel's sophisticated execution earned it the German 

Youth Literature Prize's Youth Jury Prize. In her novel, Valérie Zenatti grapples with the current 

cultural and political conflict between Israel and Palestine. In this modern correspondence novel, 

she allows her two narrators to share their everyday lives, giving voice to all their fears and desires, 

in emails they write to one another. It succeeds in making a literary plea for tolerance and political 

dialogue In cooperation with the GRIPS Theatre and BerlinerLiteraturInitiative / 

BerlinerLeseratten. For ages 13 and up. Entrance: €5 (Theater der Schulen: €4). For advance 

tickets, call (030) 39 74 74 77 

Sat, 12.09. at 2 pm, LABYRINTH KINDERMUSEUM BERLIN 

Rosana Faría (Venezuela) 

What is it like to live in a world full of light, colour, sounds and smells when one cannot see? 

Thomas is blind and and cannot see the colours or forms of things around him. He has learned to 

use his other senses – hearing, smell, touch and taste – to perceive objects, people and his 

environment. In this way he can imagine how the world and his surroundings could look. Inspired 

by the children's book, The Black Book of Colours by Rosana Faría (Venezuela), boys and girls in 

this workshop can create their own personal image of feeling, seeing and experiencing colour after 

the reading, which will be held in the book's original Spanish as well as in German. The children will 

receive a black tile, which they can later take home, and use a special technique to create their 

own unique tactile picture. Tickets at the door: Children €4, Adults €4.50, Ticket price includes the 

entrance to the exhibit, reading and workshop. 

4

Sat, 12.09. at 8:30 pm MAXIM GORKI THEATER / Studio Stage 

Klaus Doderer (Germany) and Hans-Joachim Gelberg (Germany) 

INTRODUCTION: Hartmut Diekmann SPEAKER: Friedhelm Ptok 

The life and work of author James Krüss, who passed away in 1997, stand at the centre of this 

event, a cooperation between the “Speak, Memory” and “International Children's and Youth 

Literature” sections of the festival programme. After a short introduction, the well-known expert on 

children's and young adult literature and long-time author supporter, Klaus Doderer, and the 

founder of Beltz & Gelberg, the children and youth program at Beltz publishing group, Hans- 

Joachim Gelberg, will share their memories of James Krüss. Furthermore, they will discuss 

differing literary and historical evaluations of the significance of the artist as an observer of 

contemporary social events affecting the development of children's literature since 1945. A reading 

from selected works of poetry and prose by James Krüss will follow. Afterwards, the discussion will 

be opened to the audience. Tickets: €4/€5. 

Sun, 13.09. from 11 am to 5 pm, DIE GELBE VILLA 

Jeanne Birdsall (USA), Rosana Faría (Venezuela), Svjetlan Junaković (Croatia), Suzy Lee 

(South Korea/Singapore), Maritgen Matter (Netherlands) and Nadine Touma (Lebanon) 

Family Fest International. Reading without Borders 

PRESENTER: Eva Marie Schneider-Reuter SPEAKER: Ensenble Theater an der Parkaue 

The authors and illustrators will read their texts to audiences of children, young people and adults 

and extend an invitation to creative encounters at the workshops of the Gelbe Villa. A multifaceted 

supplementary programme offers children's theatre, exciting interactive workshops, fantastic 

journeys in the Snoezel sensation room, a literature quiz, an internet treasure hunt and much more. 

Refreshments will be provided as well. In cooperation with the Gelbe Villa (The Yellow Villa), the 

JugendKulturService (Youth Culture Service) and the Theater an der Parkaue – The State Theatre 

for Children and Young People in Berlin Entrance and participation are free. Visitors with a family 

pass will receive one free drink from the milk bar. 

Mon, 14.09. from 4:30 pm to 7 pm, GRIPS MITTE (Podewil) 

Teach books to walk. Workshop for agents of literature in secondary schools 

PRESENTER: Stefanie Kaluza (Theatre teacher/GRIPS Theatre). 

How do prose texts become theatre scenes? How can various levels of a text be brought to the 

stage? How can personal experience be used when working dramatically with a text? What are 

other ways that texts can be made exciting and interesting to young students? In the workshop, 

possible answers to these questions will be presented and discovered using various theatrical 

methods. The workshop is aimed at teachers (grade 6 and up), librarians and others seeking to 

bring literature to young people. It will concentrate on the works presented by their authors at 

GRIPS theatre in Mitte on Wednesday, September 16 th at 18:00. Attendance at the reading is not 

required, but certainly recommended. Free entrance. Registration necessary via telephone 

(030) 27 87 86 -66/-70 

Mon, 14.09. at 7:30 pm, PHILIPP-SCHAEFFER-BIBLIOTHEK / KINDERBIBLIOTHEK 

Rosana Faría (Venezuela), Svjetlan Junaković (Croatia) and Suzy Lee (South Korea/Singapore) 

Studio discussions with Illustrators. 

MODERATOR: Sonja Matheson (Kinderbuchfonds Baobab) 

In a studio discussion three illustrators with different linguistic backgrounds will offer us insight into 

their work providing concrete examples with selected pictures and children's books. Rosana Faría 

4

will present her innovative, award-winning illustration concept for The Black Book of Colours on the 

theme of blindness. Svjetlan Junaković will introduce us to his children's books Moj put (t: My way) 

and Velika knjiga portreta (t: The big book of portraits) and the illustrations therein. Suzy Lee's 

children's books without text will complete our glimpse into the world of international illustration. 

How does one create an illustration concept in interaction with a text or, even, free of an existing 

text? What makes the illustrated world of a book extraordinary? What aspects of design are 

essential to age-specific illustrations? And what role do traditional elements play in the illustrations 

of the three artists? Admission free. 

Tues 15.09. at 7:30 pm PHILIPP-SCHAEFFER-BIBLIOTHEK / KINDERBIBLIOTHEK 

Nadine Touma (Lebanon) 

Insights on Arabis Children's and Youth Literature ans the world of Arabic publishing. 

PRESENTER: Sonja Matheson (Kinderbuchfonds Baobab) 

When she founded the publishing company Dar Onboz in Beirut in 2007, Lebanese publisher 

Nadine Touma set high goals: to create a pan-Arabic platform for young, up-and-coming artists, 

especially in the area of children's literary illustration. Also, the high artistic value of the works 

published by the company, in which she is the main author, should bring children closer to art and 

spoken Arabic dialects as well as awaken their childish interest in their own artistic capabilities. 

Nadine Touma would like the children's and young adult books that she publishes to make a small 

contribution to the media, literary, aesthetic socialisation of Arab children and young adults. In an 

interview with the publisher of the Baobab series, Sonja Matheson, she will report on her 

experiences in the Arabic publishing industry and together they will discuss the possibilities and 

limits of the Arabic children's and youth book markets. Afterwards, they will answer questions 

posed by the audience. Free entrance. 

Wed, 16.09. from 4 pm to 7pm, WEINMEISTERHAUS 

Children's literature as a reflection of society – “Intercultural Children's and Youth 

Literature.” 

Workshop for agents of literature in preschool and elementary school. 

PRESENTER: Sonja Matheson (Kinderbuchfonds Baobab). 

Children's and youth literature reflects the traditions, values and realities of a society. What picture 

of the world do books show? How is all diversity of reality given form? In order to understand 

literature written for children to promote reading in children, it is essential to take an analytical look 

at children's and youth literature. For international reading education, it is helpful for the teacher to 

maintain an analytical distance from the book in order to point out symbolic elements of the text 

and to encourage the child to make use of what he or she has learned through reading. Various 

titles will be closely examined – without judgement. What assertions does the text make? What 

stylistic methods are used? What feelings do the text and pictures give rise to? In schools and 

libraries, we have the possibility to benefit from the diverse life experiences of children. Every book 

conveys a certain feeling, an experience – and every child brings his or her own identity into the 

classroom. Where do they recognize themselves in the story and where do they encounter the 

other? At the end of the workshop, the concrete experiences and educational ideas of the 

participants will be summarized. Sample projects of of varying sizes will be examined in terms of 

difficulty, classroom applicability and long-term effectiveness. The key points of project planning will 

be assembled and recorded. Free entrance. Registration required via telephone 27 87 86 -66/- 

70 

Wed, 16.09. at 18:00, GRIPS MITTE (Podewil) 

Naomi Shihab Nye (USA), Rosana Faría (Venezuela) Petra Kasch (Germany) 

Literature for young adults Vol. 8 

The texts, poems and illustrations of the two authors and one illustrator at this evening event speak 

to youth's search for the particular moment between shedding the old and discovering the new, 

5

they deal with conflicts created by perceptions of identity and individuality as well as altercations 

with the world in general. Prize-winning author Naomi Shihab Nye (USA) will present a selection of 

her short prose and poetry for young adults and the illustrator Rosana Faría (Venezuela) will speak 

about her work and extraordinary book concept for The Black Book of Colours, which deals with 

the theme of blindness. Petra Kasch (Germany) will complete the group, introducing her young 

adult book, Bye-bye Berlin and the story of 13-year-old Nadja, looking a fresh start in newly 

reunified Berlin. As always, the public will be invited to ask questions and share their comments. 

Ages 13 and up, Tickets €5 (Theater der Schulen €4). Advance Ticket Sales via telephone (030) 

39 74 74 77. 

Wed, 16.09. at 7 pm, BERLIN-HOHENSCHÖNHAUSEN MEMORIAL 


From life Auf der Sonnenseite (on the sunny side). Reading, discussion, guided tour and a drink 


Released from the Stasi prison, Manfred Lenz, Klaus Kordon's alter ego, starts afresh in the West. 

But is he really 'on the sunny side'? 

20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Kordon can look back as someone who really knows life on 

both sides. 35 years ago, after his failed attempt to escape to the West, he was imprisoned by the 

Stasi in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen and later in Cottbus. One year later, his release was paid for by 

the West German Government. With a fine sense for historical moments, social and political 

(dis)proportion in East and West, he continues telling his German-German life story, which he 

began with the book Krokodil im Nacken (t: Crocodile breathing down my neck). With a very 

personal book, he adds his voice to the collective memory of German history. Registration 

required by the 13 th of September: presse@beltz.de, or by telephone (06201) 60 07 439 

Thurs, 17.09. at 5pm, HAUS DER BERLINER FESTSPIELE / SIDE STAGE 

Jutta Bauer (Germany) 

PRESENTER: Eva-Maria Schneider-Reuter 

With her extensive oeuvre, Jutta Bauer numbers among the most well-known illustrators in 

Germany. Many of her children's book concepts have become classics. In 2008 she was rewarded 

with a nomination for the highest international honour in children's literature, the Astrid Lindgren 

Memorial Award, and just recently with a further nomination for this prize as well as for the Hans 

Christian Andersen Award for 2010. The illustrator will present a show of her life's work from the 

time of her studies to the present day. Ages 13 and up. 

Fri, 18.09. at 7:30 pm, HAUS DER BERLINER FESTSPIELE / MAIN STAGE 



Native Berliner Klaus Kordon (Germany) is one of the most significant authors of German-language 

children's and youth literature. Since the end of the 70s he has published more than 50 novels, 

stories and lyrical texts which have won multiple international awards and been translated into 

numerous languages. He will read from his new autobiographical novel Auf der Sonnenseite (On 

the sunny side). Ages 14 and up, for adults, teachers, educators, students, parents, and young 

people. 

Fri, 18.09. at 7pm, WEINMEISTERHAUS 

5

Émile Bravo (France), Wally de Doncker (Belgium) and Nadine Touma (Lebanon) 

Literary journey from Europe to the Arab world and back. 

Evening Literary Salon 2009 

PRESENTER: Kathleen Gallego-Zapata SPEAKER: Matthias Scherwenikas 

The authors of children's and young adult books invite us to linger, listen and, above all, to read 

along: Émile Bravo (France) will present himself as a comic artist and introduce his children's book 

My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill. Wally de Doncker (Belgium) will read from his 

book Ahum (t: Ahem) on the topic of identity and otherness as well as from the book Het begint 

ergens (t: It starts somewhere) on the topic of global warming. In addition to children's and youth 

books that she has published, Nadine Touma (Lebanon) will share her work as an author and 

publisher in a small, innovative, pan-Arabic publishing company for young up-and-coming artists. 

Ages 13 and up. Free entrance 

5

Film – Literature on celluloid at BABYLON 

Thurs, 10.09. at 6 pm 

Abschied von Gulsary (Farewell Gulsary) 

Soviet Union 1969, Director: Sergei Urusevsky, based on the book by Chingiz Aitmatov, with 

Nurmukhan Zhanturin, 35mm, 80 min. 

Horse herdsman Tanabai remembers his eventful life in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan with the 

proud stallion Gulsary. The two of them grew old together. At night, in the lonely Kyrgyz mountains, 

he says good-bye to his dying, favourite horse. In this situation the old man looks back over the 

changes in his life: safely returned from the war, he worked in a forge before becoming a herdsman 

– a hard, but happy life in the countryside. Abschied von Gulsary is an opus of wild, unruly nature 

in which the mountains of Kyrgyzstan become a character in their own right. 

Thurs, 10.09. at 9:15 pm 

Gomorrha – Reise in Das Reich der Camorra (Gomorrah) 

2008, Director: Matteo Garrone, based on the book by Roberto Saviani, with Toni Servillo, 35mm, 

135 min. Italian w/ German subtitles 

The film describes the suggestive power of the Camorra, the operations with which the clan claims 

power and the manipulations they use to maintain their dirty business. The book by the young 

Italian author Roberto Saviani, who was a guest of the ilb in 2007, shot to No. 1 on the Spiegel 

best-seller list. The film, shot by director Matteo Garrone on location in Naples, follows the 

interwoven fates of five bosses, both big and small, who seem to have emerged directly from De 

Palma's Scarface. 

Fri, 11.09. at 6 pm 

Frühe Kraniche (Early Cranes) 

Soviet Union 1979, Director Bolotbek Shamshiyev, based on the book by Chingiz Aitmatov, with 

Emil Borontshiyev, 35mm, 98 min. 

His father has to go to war and so 14-year-old Sultanmurat jumps to fill his shoes and take care of 

the family. He leaves school help in the Kolchos. There aren't enough men to and the planting and 

the horses are in danger. Sultanmurat has to meet these challenges while, at the same time, 

experiencing his first love. As spring announces itself with the migration of the cranes and the 

crops begin to rise, all seems to have turned out well. But then bandits attack the village. 

Fri, 11.09. at 8 pm 

Sehnsucht nach Djamila (Dzhamilya) 

Soviet Union 1969, Director: Irina Poplavskaya, based on the book by Chingiz Aitmatov, with 

Natalya Arinbasarova, 35mm, 81 min. 

The novella Jamila, with which Aitmatov achieved worldwide recognition, has been called the most 

beautiful love story in the world. A young woman living in a Kyrgyz village, Dzhamilya is married to 

a man she does not love who is away fighting in the war. Her encounter with a wounded soldier 

grows into understanding and affection, which they both resist at first. A dramatic, poetic film that 

achieves artistic success largely through a purposeful reconstruction of Aitmatov's narrative style. 

Fri, 11.09. at 9:45 pm 

Nichts als Gespenster (Nothing But Ghosts) 

Germany 2007, Director: Martin Gypkens, based on the book by Judith Hermann, with August 

Diehl, Fritzi Haberlandt, Jessica Schwarz, Jeanette Hain, Stipe Erceg, Wotan Wilke Möhring, 

35mm, 119 min. 

In five episodes focused on her favourite themes, failed love and the general melancholy angst of 

Generation X, author Judith Hermann sends her characters out into the world. Venice, Jamaica, 

the German countryside, the Nevada desert or Iceland – familiar surroundings are always left 

5

ehind; the characters are all on journeys to different lands and for different motives – but we all 

recognize them: they can't escape themselves, no matter where they go. Martin Gypkens has 

taken Hermann's supposedly unfilmable story collection, marvellously adapted it for the screen and 

convinced an outstanding troupe of actors to take part. 

Sat, 12.09. at 6 pm 

Der Weisse Dampfer (The White Ship) 

Soviet Union 1976, Director: Bolotbek Shamshiyev, based on the book by Chingiz Aitmatov, with 

Nurgazy Sydygaliyev, 35mm, 95 min. 

A seven-year-old grows up in a remote corner of the Kyrgyz forest with his nature-loving 

grandfather, who raises the boy according to his ideals. When the boy sees his grandfather helping 

the evil hunter kill a doe, his belief in the old man's infallibility shatters. Largely unknown even in his 

own village and left in the lurch by his parents, the boy retreats into a world of myth and the 

Kyrgyzstan of long ago. A poetic, sensitive nature fable with a strong conscience. 

Sat, 12.09. at 8 pm 




35mm, 119 min. 

See Friday, 11.09. 

Sat, 12.09. at 10:15 pm 




See Thursday, 10.09. 

Sun, 13.09. at 6:30 pm 

Der Erste Lehrer (The First Teacher) 

Soviet Union 1969, France 1965, Director: Andrei Konchalovsky, based on the book by Chingiz 

Aitmatov, with Bolot Bejshenaliyev, 35mm, 76 min. 

Kyrgyzstan in its first years under the Soviet regime: A former red army soldier moves to a strange 

mountain town, where he is to become the local children's first teacher. From the start, he has to 

fight against the resistance of the town's backward residents. The conflict intensifies when a pupil 

for whom the teacher feels a deep affection is forced to marry one of the town's powerful farmers. 

The director has adapted Aitmatov's novel with great sensitivity for the setting and its inhabitants. 

Sun, 13.09. at 10:15 pm 





Mon, 14.09. at 6 pm, 

Abschied von Gulsary (Farewell Gulsary) 

Soviet Union 1969, Director: Sergei Urusevsky, based on the book by Chingiz Aitmatov, with 

Nurmukhan Zhanturin, 35mm, 80 min. 


Mon, 14.09. at 7:45 pm 

Frühe Kraniche (Early Cranes) 

5

Soviet Union 1979, Director Bolotbek Shamshiyev, based on the book by Chingiz Aitmatov, with 

Emil Borontshiyev, 35mm, 98 min. 

See Friday 11.09. 

Mon, 14.09. at 9:45 pm 




35mm, 119 min. 


Tues, 15.09. at 6 pm 

Der Erste Lehrer (The First Teacher) 

Soviet Union 1969, France 1965, Director: Andrei Konchalovsky, based on the book by Chingiz 

Aitmatov, with Bolot Bejshenaliyev, 35mm, 76 min. 

See Sunday, 13.09. 

Tues, 15.09. at 7:30 pm 

Der Weisse Dampfer (The White Ship) 

Soviet Union 1976, Director: Bolotbek Shamshiyev, based on the book by Chingiz Aitmatov, with 

Nurgazy Sydygaliyev, 35mm, 95 min. 

See Saturday, 12.09. 

Tues, 15.09. at 9:30 pm 





Wed, 16.09. at 6 pm 

Sehnsucht nach Djamila (Dzhamilya) 

Soviet Union 1969, Director: Irina Poplavskaya, based on the book by Chingiz Aitmatov, with 

Natalya Arinbasarova, 35mm, 81 min. 


Thurs, 17.09. at 8 pm 

Die Mutter (The Mother) 

Great Britain 2003, Director: Roger Michell Screenplay: Hanif Kureishi, with Anne Reid, Daniel 

Craig, 35mm, 111 min. English with German subtitles 

May is quite the normal grandmother from the countryside. When her husband suddenly dies 

during a family visit in London, she remains in the city and moves in with her very busy 

grandchildren. In this foreign environment, far from home, May fears becoming one of those 

invisible old ladies whose life is more or less over – until she falls in love with Darren, who is half 

her age. 

Thurs, 17.09. at 10 pm 

Intimacy 

France 2001, Director: Patrice Chéreau, Story: Hanif Kureishi, with Mark Rylance, Kerry Fox, 

Timothy Spall, Marianne Faithful, Rebecca Palmer, 35mm, 117 min. 

Jay is in his mid 40s. He has left his wife and children and is working as a barkeeper in London. 

One day an unknown woman, Claire, appears. Without speaking, they have sex and then she 

leaves. Then same thing starts happening every Wednesday afternoon. But now he wants to know 

5

more. He follows Claire and finds out that she acts in a community theatre, is married to a taxi 

driver and has a son. Now he's upset. At the 2001 Berlinale, the film was awarded the Golden Bear 

and Kerry Fox won a Silver Bear for best actress. Marianne Faithful appears in the film in the role 

of Claire's best friend. 

Fri, 18.09. at 8 pm 

Intimacy 

France 2001, Director: Patrice Chéreau, Story: Hanif Kureishi, with Mark Rylance, Kerry Fox, 

Timothy Spall, Marianne Faithful, Rebecca Palmer, 35mm, 117 min. 


Fri, 18.09. at 10:15 

Mein Wunderbarer Waschsalon (My Beautiful Laundrette) 

Great Britain 1986, Director: Stephen Frears, based on the book by Hanif Kueishi, with Saeed 

Jaffrey, Danial Day-Lewis, digital, 97 min. 

A young Pakistani named Omar inherits a dingy laundrette in a London suburb. Together with his 

friend Johnny, he transforms the run-down laundry into a real gold mine. And soon Omar and 

Johnny are more than just business partners... 

Sat, 19.09. at 8 pm 

Die Legende von Paul und Paula – on the 80 th birthday of Heiner Carow 

GDR 1972, Director: Heiner Carow, Screenplay: Heiner Carow and Ulrich Plenzdorf, based on the 

eponymous film narrative by Ulrich Plenzdorf, with Angelica Dornröse, Winfried Glatzeder, 35mm, 

105 min. 

Paula works in a shopping centre and is raising her two children alone. Before escaping into a 

“marriage of convenience,” she wants “ring the bell really loud one more time.” She meets Paul in a 

bar. To both of them, it seems like love made in heaven. But Paul doesn't want to put his career at 

risk by getting a divorce. It is only when Paula savagely leaves him that he fights to win back her 

love. Although she knows that it is a gamble, Paula still absolutely wants to have a child with Paul. 

This 70s cult film turned love story still hasn't lost its magic. 

Sat, 19.09. at 10 pm 

Mein Wunderbarer Waschsalon (My Beautiful Laundrette) 

Great Britain 1986, Director: Stephen Frears, based on the book by Hanif Kueishi, with Saeed 

Jaffrey, Danial Day-Lewis, digital, 97 min. 

See Firday, 18.09. 

Sun, 20.09 at 8 pm 

Die Mutter (The Mother) 

Great Britain 2003, Director: Roger Michell Screenplay: Hanif Kureishi, with Anne Reid, Daniel 

Craig, 35mm, 111 min. English with German subtitles 


5

Programme of the 9th international literature festival berlin 2009

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