Yoko Tawada: Memoirs of a Polar Bear
What could be nicer than reading a good book? How about reading a good book together!?
At the Goethe-Institut's new international digital book club, like-minded people from all over Northern Europe can read German-language literature together and share their reading experience. What's really special is that the authors will join us live, read from their books and take part in our discussion.
For our first meeting on June 2, we've invited German-Japanese writer Yoko Tawada to discuss her novel
Etüden im Schnee (
Memoirs of a Polar Bear)
with us.
"Memoirs of a polar bear"
From the perspective of three polar bears - grandmother, mother and son - an exciting portrait of the times and a migration story spanning three generations is created. The story is set in Moscow, on various journeys, in the GDR and finally in Berlin. The youngest polar bear gains worldwide fame and is asked to write the history of the North Pole. But, like many immigrants, he never lived in the region where he originated from and neither did his mother or grandmother. The three generations were all born in Europe.
The novel can be read historically, politically and philosophically from an animal's perspective. Or simply as a wonderful, enjoyable pastiche of migrant literature. It has been translated into many languages.
(Text: konkursbuch publishers)
Yoko Tawada
Born in Tokyo in 1960, Yoko Tawada moved to Germany in 1982. She studied Literature in Tokyo and Hamburg and published her first book -
Nur da wo du bist da ist nichts – in Germany, 1987. Numerous publications in German and Japanese followed, including prose, poetry, novels, essays and plays. Her most recent novel,
The Last Children of Tokyo (
Sendbo-o-te), was published in 2018. Yoko Tawada has received many awards for her work, including the most prestigious Japanese literary award Akutagawa-Sho, the Chamisso Prize and the Goethe Medal.
Participation is free of charge. Please fill in the registration form to receive further information and a link to our meeting space.
Registration
We are looking forward to meeting you online.
Technical requirements
We will use 'Adobe Connect' for our meeting. You can use a
PC or
Mac without needing to download any software or app. To participate, simply click on the link and register with your name in the room.
If you want to participate in the session from a mobile device such as an
iPad or
iPhone, you must install the free Adobe Connect app (https://apps.apple.com/de/app/adobe-connect/id430437503). We recommend using a headset, as speakers can produce disturbing echo effects.
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