Doğan Akhanlı, author of "Madonna's Last Dream", is many things: winner of the Goethe Medal 2019, Turkish descent, German citizen, political activist, armed only with the word. Also, he travels a lot these days. He has experienced and suffered a lot and has a lot to say.
Last week he was in Weimar. On Tuesday, August 27th, Doğan Akhanlı read from his book “Madonna's Last Dream” at the German National Theater. He was accompanied by the translator Recai Hallac, who read the German version of the novel, which was recently published by Sujet Verlag. The book presentation was moderated by Thomas Laue, chief dramaturg at UFA. The following day, Wednesday, August 28th, he was awarded this year's Goethe Medal under the motto “Poetry and Truth”, also in Weimar, together with the filmmaker Shirin Neshat and the publisher Enkhbat Roozon.
In his speech, he spoke about his arrest in Granada, his stay at the Goethe Institute in Madrid and other moments that led him to the honor of receiving the Goethe Medal in 2019.
He talks about his personal experiences of violence and dimensions of the Holocaust that are not limited to events “then” but continue to affect certain parts of society today. It speaks of gratitude and criticism, memory and topicality. You can find the full speech here.
Now we are really happy,DoKhan Akhanli morning, am 3.September, here with us Bremen to welcome. Around 19 o'clock he will for one Reading of “Madonna’s Last Dream” come to the Goethe Theater. Dr. Silke Behl will moderate the event and actor Siegfried Maschek will read the German text. There will then be a conversation with the audience. It promises to be an exciting evening all around, because both the book and the author are remarkable and an encounter with both in this format is something very special.
"Akhanlı's novel “Madonna's Last Dream” is not an easy read. It is a bold, monumental and multi-layered effort that takes the reader into various narrative levels and ways of thinking and, above all, constantly drives back and forth between fiction and fact. You can never be sure in this book, because the first-person narrator also takes on changing identities and wanders off again and again in the longing search for Maria Puder.”
This is how Iris Hetscher from the Weser-Kurier sums it up in her post Doğan Akhanlı's main work, recently translated into German by Recai Hallac. You can find further interesting articles about the writer and his novel “Madonna’s Last Dream” at, among others SWR2,to the Bavarian Radio and at the German wave.
