Yadé Kara

The protagonist of Yadé Karas’s first novel, Selam Berlin, is called Hasan Kazan and is pretty cool. He was born in Kreuzberg and grew up there until he was thirteen; then his parents decided to send him and his brother Ediz to The German School in Istanbul. The father, a member of the ’68 generation, stays in Berlin; the mother goes with the children. The novel begins in November 1989 in Istanbul. While reports of the fall of the Berlin Wall flicker across the TV screen, Hasan lies on his parents’ sofa dreaming of the long-legged blonde who has just entered his school. It dawns on him only slowly what the news on television is about, but then he knows instantly what he must do: he must go to Berlin.

Yadé Kara – Biography