Education and Knowledge//Language//Events//Literature//Gegenüber Festival
Brothers and Ghosts (German: Wo auch immer ihr seid)
On Monday, Sept 30 at 1:00pm EDT we invite you to a digital book presentation and subsequent discussion with author Khuê Pham. Khuê Pham will read from her debut novel Brothers And Ghosts (Wo auch immer ihr seid, translated from German). The reading will be followed by a discussion about her work with the journalist Joshua Yaffa.
This virtual event is free to the public. We kindly ask to sign up below to receive the Zoom link.
Brothers and Ghosts is is loosely based on the true story of Khuê Pham's Vietnamese family.
“Pham’s novel marks a seminal accomplishment that tells the dignified, thorough, and epic story of a Vietnamese family through clear, gem-like sentences and unflinching observations. With Pham’s vision, nothing is left unturned and all things are salvaged and lost at once. A courageous and bold achievement by a bright new voice.”
– Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gourgeous
About BROTHERS AND GHOSTS
A young woman, torn between two cultures, belonging to neither. A family, torn apart by a war they had no choice about. Kiều calls herself Kim because it’s easier for Europeans to pronounce. She knows little about her Vietnamese family’s history until she receives a Facebook message from her estranged uncle in America, telling her that her grandmother is dying. Her father and uncle haven’t spoken since the end of the Vietnam War. One brother supported the Vietcong, while the other sided with the Americans. When Kiều and her parents travel to America to join the rest of the family in California to open her grandmother’s will, questions relating to their past ― to what has been suppressed ― resurface and demand to be addressed. Ocean Vuong on the book: ‘A groundbreaking work in German literature, Phạm’s novel marks a seminal accomplishment that tells the dignified, thorough, and epic story of a Vietnamese family through clear, gem-like sentences and unflinching observations. With Phạm’s vision, nothing is left unturned and all things are salvaged and lost at once. A courageous and bold achievement by a bright new voice.
Khuê Phạm is an award-winning Vietnamese-German journalist and writer. A graduate of the London School of Economics, she worked for NPR's Berlin bureau before becoming an editor at the German weekly Die Zeit. She has contributed to the Guardian and USA Today. She co-wrote We new Germans, a non-fiction book about second-generation immigrants in Germany. Her debut novel Brothers and Ghosts was adapted to the stage and has just been released in Britain, Australia, and the US. She is a founding member of PEN Berlin and was part of this year's jury for the International Literature Prize, the leading award for fiction translated into German.
Read more at https://www.khuepham.de
Instagram: @pham_fatale
Joshua Yaffa is a contributing writer for The New Yorker. He is also the author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia, which won the Orwell Prize in 2021. He is currently the inaugural writer-in-residence at Bard College Berlin.
This virtual event is free to the public. We kindly ask to sign up below to receive the Zoom link.
Brothers and Ghosts is is loosely based on the true story of Khuê Pham's Vietnamese family.
“Pham’s novel marks a seminal accomplishment that tells the dignified, thorough, and epic story of a Vietnamese family through clear, gem-like sentences and unflinching observations. With Pham’s vision, nothing is left unturned and all things are salvaged and lost at once. A courageous and bold achievement by a bright new voice.”
– Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gourgeous
About BROTHERS AND GHOSTS
A young woman, torn between two cultures, belonging to neither. A family, torn apart by a war they had no choice about. Kiều calls herself Kim because it’s easier for Europeans to pronounce. She knows little about her Vietnamese family’s history until she receives a Facebook message from her estranged uncle in America, telling her that her grandmother is dying. Her father and uncle haven’t spoken since the end of the Vietnam War. One brother supported the Vietcong, while the other sided with the Americans. When Kiều and her parents travel to America to join the rest of the family in California to open her grandmother’s will, questions relating to their past ― to what has been suppressed ― resurface and demand to be addressed. Ocean Vuong on the book: ‘A groundbreaking work in German literature, Phạm’s novel marks a seminal accomplishment that tells the dignified, thorough, and epic story of a Vietnamese family through clear, gem-like sentences and unflinching observations. With Phạm’s vision, nothing is left unturned and all things are salvaged and lost at once. A courageous and bold achievement by a bright new voice.
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 ➜
Khuê Phạm is an award-winning Vietnamese-German journalist and writer. A graduate of the London School of Economics, she worked for NPR's Berlin bureau before becoming an editor at the German weekly Die Zeit. She has contributed to the Guardian and USA Today. She co-wrote We new Germans, a non-fiction book about second-generation immigrants in Germany. Her debut novel Brothers and Ghosts was adapted to the stage and has just been released in Britain, Australia, and the US. She is a founding member of PEN Berlin and was part of this year's jury for the International Literature Prize, the leading award for fiction translated into German.
Read more at https://www.khuepham.de
Instagram: @pham_fatale
Joshua Yaffa is a contributing writer for The New Yorker. He is also the author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia, which won the Orwell Prize in 2021. He is currently the inaugural writer-in-residence at Bard College Berlin.