Where impact connection to have and just how powerful our stories. Reading books opens minds it shows us new perspectives and helps us to question our assumptions. Look up to for diverse and come visit so hows are the only thing left i love most. World famous author Chimamanda Ngozi adichie has become a feminist icon she gets involved in issues writes about sexism and racism and is known as a smart tough woman with a sharp sense of humor. Im always watching always watching the wall. And stories come out me you stories speak to me and i like to say that. Sometimes you know the story calls me and you have to respond. The author is often greeted like a pop star like here at berlins literature festival i did see a shatters the myth that intellect can also be glamorous her books speak of global injustices and tell stories and often unheard voices. And really just a writer you know i want to stay home and write poetry and dream but there are things about the world that make me so angry that i then want to try and make a difference. Left nigeria. Aged 19 to study in the us where she felt discriminated against because of her skin color for the 1st time she captured that feeling in her 2013 breakthrough novel americanah which has been translated into 37 languages and is told from the perspective of a nigerian woman in the us from where the author sets america seems to have changed since 2013 i grew up thinking that certain things that have never happened in america. Grew up something in the government its something i think to myself but of course never in america and now its happening in america and theres a sense in which america has become ordinary. And and a morning i mean grief. But the writer doesnt confined herself to books in 2012 she took aim at the patriarchy in a ted talk in her charming but direct manner the video went viral. The person more likely to eat is not the physically stronger person it is the more creative person the more intelligent person the more innovative person we have evolved but it seems to me that ideas of gender have not evolved thanks some of that speech even made it into a beyond say song. Exception to the way that. The social political and economic equality. The way. House. Around the Ngozi Adichie has become a role model but the 42 year old doesnt see herself as an activist she says its more important that she tells stories because those are what holds society together so. I think no more than ever its important for storytellers to continue this is what has kept human beings growing throughout our time on earth its you know weve gone from sort of sitting round the campfire and now were writing books but its fundamentally the same thing i think its that idea of remembering that youre not a new. The Human Emotions are universal the kind of the. She lives between 2 worlds the u. S. And nigeria. In largos a deep chair holds annual creative writing workshops for Young Authors encouraging them to tell their stories and brains their voices. When i started writing i was maybe 5 i lived in small town nigeria new university community. You know i had never seen snow. I did not know what an apple was but i was writing stories in which children were playing in the snow and its an apples because thats what happened in the books i read and so it actually took a while before i started writing about my own my own experiences and my own walled. The difference in perspective and diversity of stories are what make literature so unique. Literature does not exist in a vacuum it comes from a certain society cannot make a political context and so i like to see its young writers that im not so much interested in a love story in which you know im in love when everythings smooth im interested in love stories in which youre also concerned about how to pay your rent because thats the way that life is right thats it thats a Socio Economic cunt context for a story the regime amanda in goes the a d. G. A. Advocates feminism and equality with her stories and books and shes taking readers by storm worldwide. Strong righteous and novels that move us the central themes and current german literature. We met british born Katie Derbyshire and then shes one of the most important translators of contemporary german literature working today and also teachers are cramped wheels to which german books appeal to an International Audiences and what role in german literary awards like the german book prize play. So the prize is really important inside of german speaking countries often but not always a bridge into translation for the shortlisted in the winning novel something that makes people think its set up and take notice and thats helpful in a very crowded literary market. This one from it seems that everyone in germany is looking to the book price. Took a look at the shortlisted books. Its an unusually short list 3 of the 6 books are written a debut novel written by writers under 30 which has really never happened before and actually that the books theyve nominated are very much about whats going on now in in the world. From a large and small scale like an albatross novel into. So much life begins and ends with beasts the insects have existed for millennia despite significant challenges you know that sure as a novel intervene in all winter bees the small are as important as the big the book is about to give us argument an epileptic beekeeper during the last year of world war 2 as ally bombs rain down he saves jews from the nazis. You can see certain parallels between a beehive which is totalitarian but very peaceful and the nazi regime which was totalitarian but aggressive and a few. Before the latter ended it became completely anarchic and ultimately about sheer survival. To get. Science book is like a war diary but it also dips into Medieval Times and tells the story of a monk who took the bees to a remote corner of the eiffel Mountain Region the pope manages to weave humanity. And nature together in it not actually created his very own eiffel kosmos. I dont have anything else in the i would never have thought of writing a novel that is set in new york. The author has changed his view about how important a persons roots and about the relation between a novel and its creator. I used to answer questions about that saying that it didnt have anything to do with me but now might say it absolutely is lying to me but in a very peculiar baffling way. No other choice just calmly crafted an entire universe right down to the smallest detail. Thats probably the most typical book prize berk because it takes a very literary approach to german thats a subject and has some beautiful writing its layered its complex fictionalizing a story that actually happened whereas the other one is an austrian but. She has that distance that older writers dont have parents may have been nazis or may have been victims or may have been just onlookers so she has a different approach which is more liberated i would say. All the liquid land. Is one of the debut novels on the shortlist. What i love about debut novel of is that this is the writers part that all into them and i think that theres a passion behind them that theyre like this is my book you know this is what ive always wanted to write down i loving every minute of it i am hating every minute of it but its not its not a chore for. Words its easy to put down roots where theres a lot rotting in the soil. Little bows book is set in an idyllic village called girls island or big one land a strange place thats lost in time and plays by its own rules the novels protagonist who goes there to find out more about her family. Court. I wanted to create a Community Like a cake you could slice through and see the way is the sediments of different periods in austrias history that i. Gave you novel tells the cryptic story of an enormous chasm that is spreading out beneath the village. Rocked by the home was uncontrollable it was as if the ground were. With its chest sinking down to its ribs breaking them and forcing the organs out. With the whole threatening to swallow b. Entire village residents try to fill the vacuum in an effort to keep their familiar world intact. Its a metaphor for parts of history and for the specific relationship austrians have to their countrys geography. We present ourselves as a peaceful alpine full which unlike germans in a way shows off innocent nature. The books protagonist stumbles across a crime during her research forced laborers were executed in cos im long during the final years of the nazi regime and their bodies were disposed of in the whole the deed was a race from collective memory but now the earth is crumbling below. In. The thousands and i was interested in what would happen if nature took things back again revealing all the horror to pull something down. The resulting book is the opposite of the stall chick with sharp wit it tells a tale of when suppression becomes untenable. It. Has a few common has also been nominated for her debut novel a 300 page book about a tangled relationship between people session the house by and a. The group consists of a gay couple from prison a friend and his daughter who play out a game of law is love and trust of the course of one weekend that comes to an unexpected and. Very positive perspectives and protections was important how one person interprets situations and memories and how different memories and perceptions can be. Mis apprehension and confusion who loves whom or not anymore. The novel is set in brandenburg but they also also included a 2nd plane namely the philosophy behind the japanese art. Which means broken objects using gold dust in kids would be cracks on to it in but refined the novel is written from 4 perspectives. On thats how it does appear some cope with shards and cracks in life this approach is mindful cathal it calmly takes time to put Something Back together but its also something so that the whole changes becomes more viable and appears to something quite new in the sense. Is more time to being able to see the passing of time on Something Else it. May cause a few clear bright slightly and unsentimentally about the failures and cracks that are part of life. What do you do when youve achieved everything at 30 a super car a wife children and a ton of money the professional Soccer Player evil whos made it into Englands Premier League is the main character of tonio shocking us 1st novel. I complained and thats what i do you cope with being only 27 and approaching the end of your soccer corrector. And with that. Also the end of who you are because professional athletes identify strongly with their job how do you handle having a midlife crisis in their late twentys at least its sort of normal at 45. When evil gets a red card hes left with plenty of time to think about his slowly stagnating career his marriage his affairs and about who he really is. That when this does of my protagonist comes from vienna and there is already a bit of alienation between the viennese and other austrians. Plus his family emigrated to b. N. F. From abroad. And so hes someone who has to constantly justify how his identity is taking shape. Its complicated to evil is on the Austrian National team but hes got bosnian roots and he lives in england is a complex character somewhere between an immature macho and a rebel whos understood the business and is trapped in a gilded cage. If you only notice how long the way from the pitch to the dressing room is when you have to walk it alone. Niche to the ear or not like you raw tough and without frills tells the story of alienation and loneliness. Of thinking about. Going on on the shortlist you know were all moving around. Us. Cannot choose constellation in the countries where. Families are from. And i think were thinking about what that does to us. Where we come from and where were heading this big question slings held live in books on the shortlist. Jackie thomas novel starts out in 1990 s. Berlin where mc the books main character lives a hedonistic lifestyle partying and womanizing the night away. Hes black but thats irrelevant in this world. As isnt that youre anything in a time and place where has and ground all roots dont matter to anyone i guess in the south side when people dont care thus and that appeals to me. Its for. Mick has a half brother he doesnt know gabriel who lives in london and who is also black gabriel is the exact opposite of his berlin based half brother hes a successful ambitious career minded architect. What connects the 2 is their senegalese father who once studied in east germany. The father gave his sons his skin color and left them with endless questions from people about their roots. Voisins heartlands your father when is he from have you ever been to africa he could not say whether he missed him or not he was yearning for a context for situation more than for this person he didnt know. But think of mine the night of the brothers really makes a big deal out of that childhood. I wasnt supposed to realize is that there are a few happy traditional families that i because its much easier for that person to come to terms with their own past and. Jackie thomas writing is free of pathos in judgment values and looks at how we become who we are. Want to where a person comes from mean is it a matter of genes all birth place or is origin just a matter of chance. You just saw how every home is a happenstance on youre born somewhere driven out of there donate your kidney to science over here lucky people can influence their happenstance they leave their home not because they have to but because they want to. Just to follow your origins are down to luck and this luck has an enormous influence on your birth brings with it in all trouble facts of birth happened somewhere fun and through that people see you as a certain person in his book origins. Travels home to his birthplace on the banks of the drain a river in bosnia he visits his grandmother and records her memories the book looks back at titos yugoslavia and its collapse in the 1990 s. Nationalism and war forced the family to flee from it because. I dont we wanted to look at my own biography and of my family and a file of stories that were there but the present always dips into the past if we took the same route today my mother and i would have ended up standing in front of a barbed wire fence somewhere in hungary thats hard its hard. Chance to came to heidelberg the epitome of german romanticism. A gas station turns out to be the place where origin loses its weight. Because we could be anything there we could be anything and everything in the stories we told there and there were hardly any conflicts it was like an unwritten rule not here maybe someplace else but not here in this stony shit place with chance and lets his readers join in Decision Making in the end the book becomes an adventure novel turning like a relate wheel between fact and fiction. Sashas sanish itch my favorite on the left because theres pain and there it is loss. And. There are complex characters and i think hes doing something very special with kind of fictional means exploring their own thoughts and contradictions are really in really really enjoyed meeting at. Things are things that were thinking about a lot at the moment i think not just in germany but internationally. And thats something that fiction is really good at this is picking up on. Debates that are happening on a theoretical or a personal level and bringing in in from imagination and fiction has can often tolerate contradiction. Casey to be sure says that looks alone cant solve problems be their readers because novels can change your way of looking at the world. In her novel it would be night in caracas exile carina science borgo writes of her native venezuela where her family still lives today. The book tells the story of a woman whose mother died and whose life is drawn into a spiral of violence. We spoke to the author in berlin. I have the feeling that we all venezuelan people feel they have lost a mother to have something very important very be that nothing nothing is going to to receive you anymore nothings going to. Be for is like childhood. They want. Come back anymore. Young woman is the book central character in flashbacks she remembers her childhood and her dream of a better future. She describes a society in which people have no rights and sink into poverty a place where corruption and violence pervades daily life. You can see when. The country is getting even more violent. I think this is a long process in which democracy was not Strong Enough to defend herself. Political parties were not aware of the huge social difference we had as a country and society. After becoming been a swale as president in 1909 hugo chavez imposed a new 21st century socialism on the country and set the foundation for an authoritarian regime that brutally suppressed criticism. Like millions of others saw no future in venezuela today she works as a journalist and lives in madrid. But it wasnt until she began writing her 1st novel that she found a way to address the stifling reality of her homeland. For me was important fiction. In order what happens around you and for me was a very difficult. To understand. Also identity problem i have been developing for. Many latin american countries are currently facing crisis and its taking a toll on democracy and free speech what role can literature play in such context were not so much to have 200 years. Asking us when we are. Always trying to have an answer to that question literature is able to a continent should be marked. Fix us for their real problems. And its a way to relate to natives that work for free and theres something that journalism cant do that literature can what im afraid may face its its able to give us the chance of making quests more than human as far as. Board go has written a moving debut novel that is already being sold in 26 countries after all crisis and democracy and the fight for survival everyone. You know your books is here to bring you interviews with famous authors who are all writing books or in the service of the so. Which is to reaffirm lies videos where we explore the world through literature and the best of german literature in english translation youll get smarter for free you know where your books on you tube and that 21. Stay on the ball. 4. 00 or so from one milestone. The 1500 feet m w local automotive history creating a sports sedan that was the jury just wrong place driving pleasure lives on its just going oh a trick and mercedes is leading the charge but the World Premiere of its called electric leak youll be. Driving 30 minutes on egypt. Where is home. With your family scattered across the globe. A son lives to listen to the. Journey to the words of Mission Government funding. The charge family from somalia live around the world to them one of them needed urgent assistance to. The family starts october any on t. W. Im not laughing at the gym i just sometimes down but i stand up in which a man thinks he can to jam a culture of looking at the stereotypes aquatics put in his thinking hes a country that i dont blame. Needed to be taken as grandma down to us its all about the. Im rachel joins me from the. Post. This is g w news live from berlin a 2nd insider at the white house has told intelligence officials that u. S. President trump abused his power in a phone call with ukraine corroboration from the new whistleblower constraint then. Several house committees are looking into whether trump asked to investigate his main political rival in the 2020. Also coming up protestors in hong kong to find a phantom to face again on sunday night