Fatma Aydemir and Jon Cho-Polizzi in Conversation
Aydemir’s award-winning novel is a fast-paced, character-driven family saga set in Germany and Türkiye at the end of the 20th century. In the novel, the Turkish-born protagonist, Hüseyin, has spent the past 30 years working in Germany, and his dream of buying his very own flat in Istanbul has finally come true. But he dies of a heart attack the day he moves in. His family in Germany travel to Türkiye for the funeral. In chapters narrated from the perspectives of the individual family members, we learn about each character’s personal djinns (supernatural spirits from Arabic mythology).
The complexity of migration, family, relationships, and life choices is at the center of
Djinns. The book invites readers to develop empathy for all the characters.
Fatma Aydemir will also be present for the screening of ELBOW, based on her first novel, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on Sunday, October 27.
Part of the Festival “Longing / Belonging”
Stories of migration characterize our modern societies, in which people from different cultural backgrounds search for belonging. Cultural diversity is celebrated on the one hand, but at the same time new social boundaries are emerging. The Goethe-Institut's “Longing/Belonging” festival presents artistic contributions and social discourses from Germany and North America.
Festival Website ➜
Fatma Aydemir, born in Karlsruhe, lives in Berlin and works as a journalist, publicist, and editor. Her debut novel,
Ellbogen (Elbow), was published by Hanser in 2017 and won the Klaus Michael Kühne Prize and the Franz Hessel Prize for best authorial debut. In 2019, she published the essay collection
Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum (Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare) together with Hengameh Yaghoobifarah. Aydemir is a Guardian columnist and rewrote Goethe’s classic play Faust from a feminist perspective, for Schauspiel Essen.
Jon Cho-Polizzi is a literary translator and assistant professor of German at the University of Michigan. He is co-editor of Fatma Aydemir and Hengameh Yaghoobifarah’s translated essay collection
Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare as well as the translator of Sharon Dodua Otoo’s
Adas Raum (Ada’s Realm) and Max Czollek’s
Desintegriert Euch! (De-Integrate! A Jewish Survival Guide for the 21st Century).
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