Nii Ayikwei Parkes in conversation with German writer Jackie Thomae and translator Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
Join critically acclaimed poet, writer, editor and sociocultural commentator
Nii Ayikwei Parkes, in conversation with
Jackie Thomae and
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, exploring this richly layered novel that follows the journey of two brothers as they navigate their adulthood, reluctant to centralise the colour of their skin as a way of defining how they see themselves and the decisions they make.
Brothers is about family and masculinity, and the question of whether we shape our own destiny- or whether our background and character inevitably shapes us.
"A captivatingly intelligent prose that explains how we live today. [...] There is seldom such sociological intelligence in German prose." (Denis Scheck, SWR)
"With utter nonchalance, the book tackles topics such as skin colour, success, love, the question of living right and, above all, the meaning of fate, origins and influence. An incredibly gripping read, but Jackie Thomae also manages to weave existential questions and themes into it with great ease, almost in passing.” (2019 Jury of the German Book Prize)
The event will be followed by refreshments, a chance to buy the book and author signings.
This event is supported by DAS Editions, DAAD Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies, and the German Section at the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics).
Bios:
© Urban Zintel
Jackie Thomae was born in 1972 and is a German journalist and writer. Her debut novel,
Moments of Clarity, was published in 2015. Her second novel,
Brothers, was on the shortlist for the German Book Prize in 2019 and was awarded the Düsseldorf Literature Prize in 2020. Her literary translations include
Zusammenkunft from the English original
Assembly by Natasha Brown and in 2023, she wrote an audio play based on the novel
Girl Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Born in Halle, Jackie grew up in Leipzig and Berlin where she currently resides.
© Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp is a literary translator working from German, Russian and Arabic into English. She was awarded an IBBY Honour List title for translation in 2022, and her work has been shortlisted for the Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize, the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize and the GLLI Translated YA Prize. Her translations include fiction and nonfiction from Germany, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Russia, Switzerland and Syria.
© Marianne San Miguel
Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a Ghanaian-British editor, curator, publisher and writer.
His début novel
Tail of the Blue Bird, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize and went on to win France's Prix Baudelaire, Prix Laure Bataillon and was named Best First Foreign Book of the year by LIRE. Described as a poet "of ritualistic delicacy" (Caleb Femi) he is the author of
The Makings of You and
The Geez, the latter shortlisted for the Walcott Prize, selected as a Poetry Book Society 2020 Recommendation. Named as one of Africa's 39 most promising writers of the new generation by the Hay Foundation, Nii Ay
ikwei’s recent novel,
Azúcar, has been described as “a new kind of Caribbean novel with a reach beyond the region”.
His non-fiction work explores music, nature, race, writing and the praeter-colonialism survivals of African philosophy, skills and ways of being in Africa and the African diaspora.
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