Description

The author takes you back to the world of his childhood, to the love story of Sabahattin Ali, to serious research into the historical events of the Holocaust, and to anarchist conversations among friends.

The historical mixes with the autobiographical and the fictional, resulting in a whirlpool of memories and events in which times and spaces sometimes become blurred.

Coming from a small village in the Turkish provinces, literature is the bridge to the rest of the world for the boy Akhanlı and this is precisely what is reflected in the events of the novel, in which the real and the fictional are so intertwined that at times they are no longer related are separate.

Telling the real in a non-realistic, magical or fantastic way – This style is reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez and Orhan Pamuk.

Especially at the beginning his story has something Kafkaesque about it: you never really know whose eyes you are looking through – those of Sabahattin Ali or those of the nameless narrator at the end of the 20th century?

The author also skilfully deals with the atrocities of the Holocaust by bringing his protagonists to the places where the events took place and, overwhelmed by the impressions, allowing them to ask themselves questions in monologues - about humanity, its limits and abysses.

Through his own position as a German citizen and resident, but whose childhood and past lie outside of Germany, Doğan Akhanlı manages to offer an unparalleled perspective on German history: his writing is full of criticism, but one that recognizes that blame is not black and white . Critical not only of German history but also of Turkish history and of himself, he questions more than he condemns.

The author

"Ali and his fictional character Maria enable me to think beyond borders and times. In this way, I can literarily tell of various forms of persecution and state violence in history.” This is what the author Doğan Akhanlı says about his book in conversation with Andreas Fanizadeh in the taz.on the weekend.

"A book that links German and Turkish history and draws a line from the Nazi era to almost the present day”, Angel Gutzeit introduces an interview (see below) with Doğan Akhanlı, in which his literary work as well as about his personal past.

Reviews and press:

Bavarian radio:

Doğan Akhanlı: “In 1999 I re-read the book by Sabahattin Ali, “The Madonna in the Fur Coat”. I wanted to find a language for another novel, a character who lived in this period of the 1930's. I thought maybe it would help me if I read Sabahattin Ali, who wrote at the time, and see how he writes and what the mood was like back then. And when I finished the book, a sentence came to my mind: "The Nazis made it possible for the Jews to die in childbirth. more

Deutschlandfunk:

An obsessive love, a tragic end, a desperate search for clues, set in Germany, Poland, Turkey during the Nazi era, but also decades later: Doğan Akhanlı, awarded the Goethe Medal in 2019, tells a story in "Madonna's Last Dream". fast-paced refugee story… more

Radio Bremen:

In August 2019, Doğan Akhanlı received the Goethe Medal for his courageous political commitment to international understanding, especially between the Armenians, Turks and Kurds. The Bremer Sujet Verlag has now published his novel "Madonna's Last Dream" in German. Burcu Arslan introduces the book.… more

WDR, worth reading:

Doğan Akhanlı has told history and stories of victims in a powerful narrative stream. "Madonna's Last Dream" is a profound examination of crimes against humanity and the consequences for the descendants... more

WDR Culture on Wednesday:

The German-Turkish writer Dogan Akhanli is awarded the Goethe Medal. In his work, Akhanli deals with the themes of violence, memory and human rights. A conversation with the author... more

Buten and Binnen:

I am Doğan Akhanlı 03. September in Bremen

Jewish Salon am Grindel e.V.

Historical reality and literary fiction blend seamlessly in this thoroughly researched and brilliantly written road trip. An unusually complex, literary sophisticated panorama of the complications of the 20th century and a valuable addition to the exclusively German-Jewish perspective. more

Bucheule.de:

What an impressively complex novel. In terms of style, Doğan Akhanlı approaches Orhan Pamuk or Borges with his book. more

Ingrid Strobel:

There is no coquetry, no self-reflection in this very personal book, and if it confused me on the first few pages, I am now grateful that Dogan Akhanli neither conceals nor tries to resolve the confusion into which his life in Germany sometimes plunges him . more

Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine:

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