Literatures of the World

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Haus der Berliner Festspiele | Foyer

Laila Lalami (Morocco/USA)
Presented by: Bernhard Robben
Reader: Floriane Daniel
Laila Lalami was nominated by Abdourahman Waberi for the programme section “Literatures of the World”. Inspired by newspaper reports of Moroccan refugees, she published her prize-winning novel “Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits” in 2005, a work that follows the lives of four migrants after landfall in Spain. In her new novel “Secret Son” – which Lalami will be presenting in Berlin, and which will be published in early 2009 – the author returns to Morocco: in the centre of the story is Youssef, who is growing up in the slums of Casablanca.

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Haus der Berliner Festspiele | Foyer

Ivan Vladislavić (South Africa)
Presented by: Thomas Brückner
Reader: Frank Arnold
In "Portrait with Keys" Ivan Vladislavić paints a vivid and complex portrait of Johannesburg and the new South Africa. Empathically he ambles through his city as observer, collector and participant at the same time. With finely tuned precision and humour he describes the fears, the prejudices and hopes of the inhabitants, creating – in 138 chapters – his personal topography of Johannesburg.