Programme of the 9th international literature festival berlin 2009

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.
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