Güner Yasemin Balci

Literature LIVE: "Heimatland. Showing teeth against the enemies of democracy"

"Our freedom is not negotiable"

"My ancestors fought bears in the mountains with their bare hands, do you really think I'm going to leave my homeland to you just because you want to intimidate me with your accusations of racism? You can forget all about it!"

Güner Balci's parents came to Berlin-Neukölln as Turkish guest workers. Moving into an apartment with their own bathroom in the Rollberg district was a milestone for them as they arrived in a foreign world. But the former working-class district, where their daughter had a carefree childhood, increasingly turned into a social hotspot in the early 1980s. The sons of extended Arab families dominated the scene. A reactionary Islam spread, denying girls and women self-determination.

Güner Balci tells of self-assertion and failure, of friendship and loss in a neighborhood that became her school of life. A passionate declaration of love to her homeland, Germany.

"Heimatland" will be published by Berlin Verlag on August 01, 2025, 304 pages