Things that used to be regarded as certainties are no longer seen that way today. These stories about profound changes and sudden new insights – but also about comforting continuities – have been specially gathered together for Germany’s guest appearance at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair in May 2022.
“The best, the oldest stories in the world have always begun the same way.”: thus begin Pierre Jarawan’s recollections of Beirut, a ‘city of coruscating contradictions’; recollections that are shot through and through not only with stories but also with silences. And questions ...
Sallamah feels an urge to go out on the sea. She wants to dive for pearls like her father before her. Being a girl, she is mocked, her wishes ignored. Instead, she is married off. When pearl-fishers perish, the blame falls on Sallamah.
Six-year-old Jasmin Knusperberg always wakes up before her parents. One Sunday morning she asks her sleepy parents to let her go swimming with dolphins – but it’s just a trick to disguise what she really wants to do.
Anke Kuhl once again recounts a children’s story that is not for the faint-hearted: Blacky, the black rabbit has to be separated from the other rabbits because it keeps biting them to the point of drawing blood. But Blacky gets a second chance ...
In the course of festivities in the streets of Vienna a doctor catches sight of a fascinating woman, but shies away from talking to her. He bumps into her again, they spend some time together – but there’s no future in it. Or is there perhaps?
The bear and the weasel have a delicious meal in front of them - consisting of three mushrooms. But who’s to get two, and who’s to get one? They argue and argue, putting their friendship at risk, until suddenly ...
Moritz Rinke refracts the current reality of war through an everyday scenario – an encounter on a train involving two women, and a child reading a book about a seal that has to cope with a series of challenging adventures.
