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Reading and Panel Discussion

A cooperation between Literaturhaus Berlin, Goethe-Institut im Exil, Sinn & Form, and Stiftung Exilmuseum Berlin

Najat Abed Alsamad, Kein Wasser stillt ihren Durst, translated from the Arabic by Larissa Bender, Edition Faust 2023
Taqi Akhlaqi, Versteh einer die Deutschen, translated from the Farsi by Jutta Himmelreich, sujet Verlag 2024

The Syrian writer and gynecologist Najat Abed Alsamad has been living in exile in Germany since 2016. Afghan writer and journalist Taqi Akhlaqi was able to migrate with his family in 2021. Both write about their experience of exile and the places they left behind in very different ways. Taqi Akhlaqi’s memoir of his first residency as a writer at Heinrich-Böll-Haus (Versteh einer die Deutschen, or Try Understanding the Germans) is written in a highly ironic, humorous tone, yet one that does not block out a sense of being torn. Written in a poetic language with a plot that includes several story lines and characters, her prizewinning novel Najat Abed Alsamad (Kein Wasser stillt ihren Durst, or No Water Quenches Their Thirst) describes the sacrifices and violence experienced by Druze women.
This evening will explore the various styles and languages of exile, a concern about those left back home, and the burdensome privilege of having escaped the horror that is expressed in one’s own works.

Najat Abed Alsamad and Taqi Akhlaqi will discuss these issues with the editor of Sinn und Form Elisa Primavera-Lévy.

In German and Arabic with simultaneous translation into German.

Free admission

Location: Werkstatt Exilmuseum
Fasanenstr. 24, 10719 Berlin
The building unfortunately is not barrierfree.

LIVE STREAM OF THE EVENT:
youtube.com/watch?v=qe_1rAFLi90

© Photos: Dirk Skiba; Naya Elmusfi