It is 1959, Damascus. The most famous storyteller in Damascus, Salim, the coachman, has mysteriously lost his voice. For seven nights, his seven old friends gather to break the spell with their seven different, unique stories — some personal, some modern, some borrowed from the past. Against the backdrop of shifting Middle Eastern politics, Schami’s…… Continue reading Review: Damascus Nights – Rafik Schami
I had found out about Biskaya a few months ago, and the publisher was so kind as to send me a copy. What I remembered from the blurb was that it was about a black woman living in Berlin. I didn’t look further into the book as I wanted to experience the book without too…… Continue reading Review: Biskaya – SchwarzRund
The Village Indian is written by Abbas Khider. I had heard about the author while researching for my German Diverse Books project. He was a refugee and is living in Berlin at the moment. While planning my TBR for Asian Lit Bingo, I decided to read one of his books for the Asian Refugee MC…… Continue reading Review: The Village Indian – Abbas Khider
In 2016, I went to a reading at the Leipzig Book Fair and heard Jayrôme C. Robinet for the first time – and it was awesome. (If you ever get the chance to hear him read, go for it!) I decided to get his book Das Licht ist weder gerecht noch ungerecht: a collection of writing in…… Continue reading Review: Das Licht ist weder gerecht noch ungerecht – Jayrôme C. Robinet
I’d been meaning to read Deutschland Schwarz Weiss for quite some time. I’d seen it at a friend’s place and had skimmed through it. Deutschland Schwarz Weiss (Eng.: Germany Black White), subtitle der alltägliche Rassismus (Eng.: the daily racism) is as the title implies a book about the racism that black people experience on a daily…… Continue reading Review: Deutschland Schwarz Weiss – Noah Sow
German twitter was full of mentions of Ellbogen, and since it’s not easy to find diverse books published in German, I knew I had to get it and read it. It turned out to be a whole lot more than just a contemporary novel.
I started reading this book months ago but didn’t have the motivation to finish it. I picked it up because it discusses racism in German universities. The book was quite difficult to read at times, as it reminded me of some of my experiences. I’m assuming this is one of the reasons why I couldn’t finish the book the first time. At the moment, this book is only available in German.
English Last week, I decided to look for #ownvoices diverse books – just for one hour. For some reason, I decided to make the search even more difficult, and only look for books that had been published in German. One hour turned into several hours over the span of two days. My favourite genres are…… Continue reading German Diverse Books (#DeutscheDiversityBücher)
