Heimatbuch eines Heimatlosen. Behzad Karim Khani spricht mit Deborah Feldman über »Als wir Schwäne waren«

In the organizer's words:

His debut "Dog, Wolf, Jackal" made him the shooting star of German literature: "This book is a sensation," said Elke Heidenreich. "Ten times better than any '4 Blocks'" wrote Ijoma Mangold. Katharina Granzin attested to its "poetic flair". Now Behzad Karim Khani is following up with a second novel. Als wir Schwäne waren tells the story of growing up in a Ruhr area housing estate where the kitchens have no hoods and the corridors smell of poverty. It is the 1990s and the family has fled to Germany from Iran. The mother is a sociologist, the father a writer, in whose language there are fifteen different terms for pride. The son is one thing above all: angry. Because there is violence on the streets of his neighborhood that his parents have little knowledge of. Behzad Karim Khani talks to Deborah Feldman ("Unorthodox") about his novel, the diaspora as a home and freedom in being a stranger.