Ryad Assani-Razaki
Ryad Assani-Razaki (born November 4, 1981 in Cotonou , Benin ) is a French-Canadian writer who lives as a computer scientist in Toronto and Montreal . As an Afro-Canadian , Assani-Razaki writes in French and has emerged from a volume of short stories Deux cercles (2009) and a novel La main d'Iman (2011), in German Iman , about the life of African street children and their longings. In 2017 his short story Olaosanmi appeared in the anthology L'Amour Toujours L'Amour. Young French love stories.
Life
Born in 1981 in the largest city of Benin in West Africa, the son of a computer scientist and a mother connected with literature, Assani-Razaki came to the USA in 1999 and began studying computer science at the University of North Carolina . He moved to Canada in 2004 and obtained his master's degree in this subject from the Université de Montréal , Province of Québec . He is currently working as a computer scientist in Toronto.
He began to write at an early age. In 2009 he published a book with short stories Deux cercles (two circles) that had not yet been translated into German and was honored with the Trillium Book Award for this . He regularly visits his old homeland, Benin . For his first novel La main d'Iman (Eng. Iman ) - it is set in an unnamed African state - he put together the material he wanted to portray in literature over the years by speaking to otherwise unheard people in similar situations. For this novel, published in Canada in 2011, in France in 2013 and in Germany, translated by Sonja Finck in 2014, he received the Robert Cliche Prize (Le Prix Robert-Cliche) endowed with Canadian dollars 10,000 in 2011, an award that has been in use since 1979 is awarded for an anonymously submitted French-Canadian literary work. Some of the awardees have become known in Canada and beyond.
The writer names as literary role models: the Afro-American Nobel Prize for Literature Laureate Toni Morrison , the French authors Nathalie Sarraute and Annie Ernaux , the Trinidad-born Nobel Prize Laureate VS Naipaul , who lives in Great Britain and whose ancestors came from India, and the American Pulitzer bearer with Indian roots Jhumpa Lahiri , people who write about other people. He also read novels by the German writer Christa Wolf .
Literary work
Deux cercles
In the stories Deux Cercles (Two Circles), which were previously available in French , Assani-Razaki describes the fictional fate of individual people who immigrated to the West from Africa and who, for various reasons , feel neglected and marginalized and actually have such frustrating experiences. The author sees reasons for this also in the person of the immigrant, e.g. B. Inadequate language skills, which turn every restaurant order into an adventure; or a social retreat into the sparsely furnished small apartment, probably for emotional reasons, because an emigrant who has left everything behind no longer sees any meaning in life, as homeless as he feels with his memories. In his book presentation, Jean-Luc Doumont summarizes Assani-Razaki's approach; In a world that is more and more reminiscent of a globalized village, despite the differences in our beliefs and prejudices, we should move closer and compromise. For the writer, the two circles symbolized the different social, cultural and religious backgrounds of locals and immigrants who were supposed to intertwine with one another, and the respective initially contradicting individual stories. But what difficulties and frustrations arise in everyday life for immigrants from “foreign lands” and are imbalances and confrontations inevitable?
Iman
Plot outline
Iman's hand to save him seizes little Toumani, six years old, and pulls him laboriously out of the deep hole in a garbage area, where his drunken slave owner has thrown him and locked him up almost beyond recovery. His parents had him from the countryside to the city sold for 23 euros. Toumani survived, but one-legged, because rats had gnawed at the half-dead child. The two become inseparable friends.
"(Me, Toumani)" heard his laugh that I would never forget. It exploded in my ears and brought me back to life. "
Around them a larger clique of their peers, street children from the slums of the big city, who mostly keep themselves alive with unskilled labor, sometimes even beyond legality. Iman teaches his friend to read and write, to walk with a crutch, and he gives him a wheelchair and drives him in it.
“How can I make you understand how I felt about him? I owe him everything, even my human being. The friendship was only a fraction of our relationship, it was nothing but the tip of a huge iceberg "
Two generations back: Iman's grandmother, a pilgrim to Mecca , turned away from the world, devoted her life to prayer. Iman's mother, who was very young in a liaison with an elderly white man, from whom Iman was born. She was impressed and lured by the man from the west by driving his show-off car. The white man has long since returned to Europe to join his wedded wife. The mother struggles with her fate, she casts out Iman when he grows bigger because she cannot break his will. Only many years later, when it comes to his rescue, will she take care of him again:
“Tears ran down her cheeks. 'My son is behind that door?' - ,Yes.' - She clung to the railing ... 'I can't ... you know, Alissa, sometimes it's just too late.' - After a while I got up and straightened my dress. I felt like I was eighty years old. But hadn't I also put the pain of several generations on my shoulders? "
Iman and Toumani, the two male heroes of the novel, conquer the years of adolescence together , on the streets and in the slum. In spite of all their love, they form a pair of opposites: Iman restlessly dreams of Europe in order to escape the local misery; Toumani is clear that he has to find his future within this country, between people as they are.
The second half of the novel comes to a head: the two fight over the third protagonist of the novel, Alissa, who is of the same age and who is allowed to study in a sewing workshop, whose exploitation by the owner is also vividly portrayed. She, too, was once sold into the city by her parents and already met Toumani at the same "agent". She could handle the problems differently. Their freedom is above all an inner freedom that is present in their consciousness.
At the same time, there is trouble with the police and the military for the boys, as the whole gang is slipping more and more into the criminal and the violent relationships in the clique drag them into the confrontations. Violence is now the dominant issue. At the end Iman can board the ship to Europe, the end remains open, because for the three protagonists there is “no failure and no success”, they are at a “crossroads”, the author emphasizes, “doors remain open”.
Narrative perspective and narrative style
The novel is laid out like a puzzle, with different narrative voices getting their say. The narrative perspective changes in each chapter. Four of the five characters in the novel appear as first-person narrators , except for the eponymous protagonist Iman, whose image is based on the different descriptions of the others. The drawing of the characters is precise, psychologically plausible. The miserable conditions in Africa, the author also calls the book an African novel, are discussed, in particular the violence of interpersonal relationships as a mirror of social conditions becomes clear. In comments on his book, Assani-Razaki emphasizes that he also sees a tragic fate, the “drama” of this continent in it, which will continue for generations. It is difficult for the individual to free himself from it, and the flight to rich countries is fraught with unclear success.
“It is said that man has his destiny in hand, but that is a lie. Most of the time, fate is just the tip of a spear that someone threw off several generations ago. "
The protagonists' inner wealth stands against their external poverty, love against robbery and brutal violence, strength and hope against deep despair, and such states always exist in the same person. Assani-Razaki paints in a very precise, easily understandable way the reasons and feelings which African women (here: the mother, as a wish behind their affair) and Africans (here: their son) cause a shaky boat to Europe to climb and risk their life for an uncertain fate.
In August 2011 the journalist Josée Lapointe spoke in detail in La Presse (Canada) on the basis of Assani-Razaki's descriptions of Iman . Since he has lived in America, he has returned to Benin on several occasions and heard such stories there, some of which have gone down in the book. The author spoke to many people in the bidonvilles of big cities. He was able to gain the trust of those people whose words no one else listens to and give their experiences a voice in the book. According to Josée Lapointe, Assani-Razaki emphasizes that he deliberately depicted the boy Iman as an "empty shell" about whom we only experience almost everything through the reflection in the thoughts of his fellow human beings, i.e. filtered through their perception. Each chapter in this way brings a different perspective on Iman; However, it should not be possible to get to the core of Iman's personality, says the author.
“Iman is empty. Everyone draws from it, everyone uses it for their own purposes "
The author avoids linguistic local references in order not to create a distance to the reader and to facilitate identification with his characters. Therefore, each person has their own voice that suits them. According to Assani-Razaki, his theme is universal human problems, which he depicts realistically, not exotic; he doesn't want to use clichés; He rejects the mystification of a person's origin. Accordingly, there were no translation problems with regard to the language level.
Thematic focus of the novel
Being white
Iman meets the young white Anna, a holiday guest. She puts the flea in his ear, to escape the misery to Europe. But does a street child in Africa have the human right to happiness? Most of the people in the book are skeptical about this, and they warn Iman against a white woman who gives him false hopes for a life together in Europe. Iman says:
"The world belongs to all of us, Toumani,"
but Toumani thinks:
"I would have liked to laugh at him, but I was far too sad for that ... I realized how much power the whites have over us. You decide what drives us and what moves us. Today, as in the time of slavery, their strength is that they can buy anything. The best way to control a person is to control what makes them happy. The whites rule us by selling us our own dreams. "
To be black
With the emigration that Iman aspires to, he rebels against the miserable fate of street children in his own country, an individual escape to Europe. Toumani thinks this is a mistake. Iman sees no power for improvement among blacks . Assani-Razaki makes Iman say ironically:
“Look! Then you see the misery. Or maybe you don't see it because it's inside of us. We cannot conquer misery. It's in our blood, it makes our hearts beat. We don't even feel it anymore because it's under our skin. Our black skin is this misery. And why? Because we don't want it any other way, Toumani! "
Toumani sees his open future in Africa:
“Iman asked me a lot of questions: Where did I come from? How long have I been in town? Even if I didn't know the answers, his questions made me realize that I was from somewhere and that I was human. Basically, Iman made me a person "
In an interview with the “Münchner Feuilleton”, Assani-Razaki answered questions about his hope for Africa:
“I see signs that people at all levels of society want change. Whether they have the strength to bring it about remains to be seen. It takes a particular type of leadership to gain the economic and political independence necessary to improve people's livelihoods ... It all starts with the mindset, the will to change, and the belief that it is possible ... It seems to me that the new goal of those Africans who are settling down (sc. In the West), as well as those who are returning to Africa , is to open up perspectives for the Africans so that they no longer feel the need to follow Europe to go. That means seeing Africa as an economic partner and not as a beggar forever indebted. This can be achieved through the new means of communication and the increasing awareness of a world that is larger than the Europe-Africa axis. "
Street children and child labor
If you compare the novel with other, thematically similar books, you will notice that the author allows his characters to act completely independently and purposelessly. While the books about street children in poor countries, which have appeared in large numbers in Germany, almost always have an educational or political intention, i.e. want to generate understanding or social activity in our country, and sometimes show the charitable goal of involving the reader in aid projects, so this intention is lacking in Assani-Razaki. The world of the whites is doomed - Iman's white father runs away - or it is the ill-founded hope of a refugee . Nobody knows what Iman will experience in Europe when he gets there at all.
Once the subject of refugees is addressed in the novel by a man who has returned to Africa and sees his exile in the world of whites negatively:
“Although an old returnees from Europe told the boys in Benin: There was a time when I no longer knew what it was to be a person. "
Since the author describes the life, the living conditions and the activities of the children and young people precisely and vividly, the novel complements the books about street children and child labor in a literary way.
“(Here) we are interested in the span that lies between survival and life for the street child in the African city. What - also internal - possibilities does Toumani not only have to survive, but also to shape life? "
The author goes into the harshness of his descriptions. Toumani experienced extreme, life-threatening violence; and he didn't want to gloss over that. In many countries around the world there are still child slaves today:
“When you lend your ear to them, people say just hard things like that. My book is still moderate there. I don't want to arouse pity either. I talk about things as they really are. Nothing is exaggerated, not the life in Bidonville, not the relationship between the landlady and her employees, nor the violence within the gangs. "
The topic of “child labor” led to inquiries at many events during the German-language reading tour. In Hamburg, Assani-Razaki said:
“With the help of a system of mutual help and solidarity, children from the country (ie. Far from the cities) escape the high child mortality and get a chance for an education in the city. You work in the household, in return you get room and board. Abroad, however, only cases of abuse and violence are known. "
Assani-Razaki is also about the paths and thoughts that lead to emigration while still in their homeland. What makes people want such a thing? What are the roots of longing? In the west we usually see the end of these journeys: the boat refugees, the camps for those arriving. But what happened before? We don't understand. Iman does not want to believe that he is following a ghost either. Because behind the dream there is nothing: a reality that no one can accept. The whole thing is a matter of thinking, of culture. And despite everything, the story of African emigration continues, from one generation to the next. After all, it was about portraying believable individuals, not archetypes:
“Toumani, for example, is not a bad person. He is the result of everything that other people have done to him "
Assani-Razaki wants to portray such children, for whom life is bad, lifelike, with all their heart pounding with fear, but also their strength. He regards them as the core of the book of Iman .
During his reading tour in March 2014, which included eleven stops, including Zurich, Berlin, Freiburg, Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, the Leipzig Book Fair and Lit.Cologne , Assani-Razaki emphasized that in his novel he definitely had moments of happiness in life of the three protagonists: z. B. getting to know Toumani and Alissa as young children. Likewise, selling children who traditionally worked in their own families does not always mean child slavery; rather, such children can ideally learn a profession in exchange for domestic services.
Title, chapter headings, dust jacket
- The French title La main d'Iman (literal translation: Iman's hand) symbolizes the helping hand that Iman Toumani extends. “Iman” is an anagram of “main” (hand).
- “Iman” (Arabic) means belief, here in a better future.
- Also shown graphically in the German table of contents, the first letters of the chapters form the word " Immigration ".
- The cover for the German edition by Julie August emphasizes the theme of the hands, which appear in the original title, with three raised hands from two African youths.
Reception in German-speaking countries
The novel Iman received strong attention from German literary criticism, leading newspapers and broadcasters reviewed it in the cultural section.
In Wiener Kurier , Peter Pisa recommends the novel Iman as “Scream from Africa”, which reveals why people fled to Europe despite warnings. "How much do you have to see, hear, read, so that it is impossible to build walls (in Africa, on the sea, in the mind)?" The author does not simplify the complicated "emotional struggles" from different perspectives.
In his book review: History of an Escape from Africa on Spiegel online, Thomas Andre also refers to the current refugee problem at the EU borders and describes Iman as a "symbolic figure of our present" for the numerous people who have fled the often paid for with their lives Hopefully take the sea to Europe, but cannot expect a good future there. The author tells individual stories before “ Lampedusa ” in his “moral” novel about Africa, but also about Europe. In the last part, the allegorical text is written too dramatically and pathetically, altogether too conventional.
The youth of emigrants is the title of Carola Ebeling's review in the TAZ . Assani-Razaki describes the individual inner and outer experiences of his five characters from four perspectives over a decade-long period until shortly after the turn of the millennium. Only Iman does not get his own voice, but is described by others "from outside". Implicitly without analysis, there were traces of European colonialism and the political and socio-economic conditions afterwards, which would have been “inscribed” in the self-image. According to Eberling, the author uses clear, concise language in his novel, without many nuances. For Eberling, the “pictorial quality” of the interconnected, but broken by polyphony, descriptions of feelings and perceptions, of love and betrayal, is a “great attraction” of the figure drawing, which appears to be “alive” and which only becomes confusing at the end through ever new twists.
In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Bernadette Conrad emphasizes the contradictory nature of the psychologically precisely drawn characters:
"(The author)" made his characters so believable that you think you understand why they are now almost destroying what they love most. (They have) no tools to deal with affection and to maintain friendship ... It is primarily this psychological and emotional dimension that the author is interested in in his gripping, confidently told debut novel. ... He sends his characters out into the open. "
Sophie Sumburane emphasizes in LitMag, the literature section of CULTurMAG Hamburg, the openness of the novel, which by no means offers a conclusive solution and makes the reader think:
“The reader is fired, alone with the loose threads of the life stories. 'Iman' is a wonderful book that deals with so many African problems like no other. Not all problems are homemade; but above everything the characters do, the spirit of the former colonial times hovers and the question: how would life have been if, if only, one had been born in another country? "
Hendrik Heinze shares text excerpts, information about the author and his work and a positive assessment on Bayerischer Rundfunk. The author wrote the “strong, easy-to-read novel” “in straightforward language” with “rich plot” and “skilful change of perspective”. Although his protagonists try to determine their own lives, Assani-Razaki shows the "brutal hopelessness", regardless of how hard they try to change their lives. The desolation offers few chances of "own little piece of happiness".
Katharina Göbler sees, in Die Zeit , in the novel “Iman” above all the literary representation of an all-pervasive and reshaping violence in Africa:
“What is theoretically treated in post-colonialism debates ...: self-determination, emancipation, tradition, becomes visible and audible in this book in an everyday and often cruel way. The sighs and outbursts of anger, declarations of love and screams of fear flow together in a chorus of not very harmonious voices, from which fates can be heard, but no melody; and certainly not a politically correct message. ... A story of anger, fainting, a story about many. "
In the cultural broadcast Aspects of ZDF, the author, country of origin and book were briefly presented. Through his three generations of characters, the author poses questions about the “power of skin color”, faith, violence and the “darkness of human hearts”. Until the end, the reader is excited to see whether Iman will find a way out.
During the Leipzig Book Fair 2014, which also featured a reading from Iman , Christhard Läpple interviewed Ryad Assani-Razaki in detail in the format Das Blaue Sofa ( Club Bertelsmann , Deutschlandradio Kultur and ZDF) and made a book recommendation. When asked whether he wanted to continue working as a computer scientist when he had become a successful writer, Assani-Razaki replied that it was important to him to survive in real everyday life and at the same time to collect and fictional stories about people's realities. Iman is a book about people who long for freedom. He stressed the complexity of the situation in Benin several times. Poor parents who give a child to the city for money are not always cruel, but sometimes hope for a manual training for their children, and not every child who provides services for money is affected by child slavery. "Dreams are a luxury if it is only about survival." In this extreme existential situation, Assani-Razaki said, there are only two options: "Either I am dead or I am happy." In parts of Africa, the prejudice is that the only one The chance to survive, to achieve dignity and freedom lies in Europe. But Europe is not the land of dreams, but “a normal place”, not a paradise. The refugees with “strange black faces” are people, not “rubbish” without individual stories. He wanted to show individual black faces, their entire cosmos.
In the “Logbook” of Kreuzer-Magazin Leipzig, the special edition for the book fair, Simon Grimm highlights the book's political and historical reference:
“Assani-Razaki's confident handling of the clash of blacks and whites in a post-colonial context is strong. The differentiated perspectives of the black protagonists all seem understandable, the blanket rejection of the (former) oppressors as well as the striving (sc. Imans) to make a 'white' life plan their own and to look for happiness in Europe "
Grimm criticizes: the way the emotions turn into violence between the three towards the end of the novel and the occasional participation of the two boys in brutal gangs are portrayed, this seems clumsy to him in places and was introduced too late. That is a shame, since these developments are a mainstay of the final drama.
Gesa Ufer stated on Radioeins Berlin that the book was linguistically legible despite the violence. The children remained “morally intact” for a surprisingly long time. In the same program, the filmmaker Detlev Buck emphasized that he was particularly impressed by the fact that the three main characters showed strength in their own different ways and expressed faith and hope for change.
In the FAZ, the Tübingen Romanist Niklas Bender addresses the generational violence in Africa, described in "close authenticity". From the independence struggles of the 1960s through the terror regimes in the meantime to today we see an "ancestral line of misfortune and cold". The violence suffered at the beginning settles in Toumani's body and erupts more and more at the end of the book. Ties of friendship and love, but also of hatred, bind the three main characters together; Alissa alone is able to win a portion of happiness from misery in the long term. Toumani's destructive behavior shows self-destructive elements, the violence is deeply and permanently rooted in his person, yes, it becomes “part of the search for happiness”.
“(The novel encourages) to gain general meaning from the characters who are fighting and suffering. As mysterious as Iman, Toumani and Alissa may seem to themselves and the reader, their fate is universal. The tension between puzzle and knowledge: that is inspiring literature! "
The illustrated star emphasizes the motivation to flee:
"" Iman "tells what drives refugees to Europe. A moving, sad, exciting novel. And always relevant after the tragedy of Lampedusa . "
In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the reviewer Jutta Person, herself an author, praises Sonja Finck's “no-frills” translation into German, which defies the dangers of kitsch. In his “breathtaking debut novel” in laconic but complex language, the author shows the reality of a society shaped by poverty, patriarchy and religion, in which women are seen primarily as consolers for men and as mothers of their children. But "one (would have) lost a lot if one read this novel only as a document of a social reality that is as far away as possible from saturated Europe." The author does not use the "Eurocentric judgment, pity and indignation machine".
In the section The Political Book of the Bundestag newspaper, Das Parlament , on July 7, 2014, a recommendation of the novel by Johanna Metz appeared. " Iman tells what can induce people to flee across the sea to Europe." Metz emphasizes, as the title also says, the aspect of emigration from Africa.
Honors
- 2009: Trillium Book Award for Deux cercles
- 2011: Iman received the Prix Robert-Cliche for the best debut novel in Francophone Canada
- 2012: Iman on the shortlist Canada Council for the Arts announces the 2012 Governor General's Literary Award Finalists , archive at Bibliothèque et Archives Canada , optionally also in Franz.
swell
Books and short stories
- Ryad Assani-Razaki: Deux cercles. Vlb éditeur, Montréal 2009
- Ryad Assani-Razaki: La main d'Iman. L'Hexagone, Montréal 2011, ISBN 978-2-89006-941-1 ; again Liana Levi, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-86746-647-2 .
- Iman. Translated by Sonja Finck , Wagenbach , Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8031-3254-3 Also as an e-book
- Ryad Assani-Raziki: Olaosanmi , translator Sonja Finck, in: Annette Wassermann Ed .: L'amour toujours - toujours l'amour? Young French love stories. Wagenbach, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-8031-2776-1 , pp. 65–84
Web texts
- Ryad Assani-Razaki: Excerpt from “Iman” (2011) in French . 17 pages
- Ryad Assani-Razaki: Série littéraire: “Le sang - Habibti, une nouvelle inédite,” . November 12, 2013. A previously unpublished story by the author on the subject of "Blood". In French
Interviews and discussions
- Ryad Assani-Razaki, Gesa Ufer, Frank Meyer on "Iman" . Translation from d. Franz. Sonja Finck. In: The Literature Agents. Radioeins Berlin, broadcast for a reading in Heimathafen Neukölln on March 11, 2014, March 16, 2014, from 6 p.m. (audio file 28.30 - 34.40 minutes of the broadcast)
- Ryad Assani-Razaki on the “blue sofa” . Christhard Läpple speaks to the author about his new book "Iman" at the Leipzig Book Fair. March 15, 2014, ZDF media library, video (29.5 min.)
- Interview with the author on Iman , in Paris, video (4 min.), (French)
- In conversation: Cordelia Strube and Ryad Assani-Razaki on writing literature. Brad Frenette, National Post (Canada), June 23, 2010
- "I AM the colonization - Moi, je SUIS la colonization" Bilingual audio file, German / French. from the author's reading in Freiburg on "Iman" on March 13, 2014 , Radio Dreyeckland , March 18, 2014, 6 min.
Media reception "Deux cercles" (2009)
- Jean-Luc Doumont: "Deux cercles" de Ryad Assani-Razaki . Review of “Deux cercles”. Made in Quebec Wordpress, June 20, 2009 (French)
- Artists in the Greater Toronto Area: Ryad Assani-Razaki is telling our migration stories , by Leah Sandals; about “Deux cercles”, the creation, the author's motivation to write. July 13, 2011
Media reception "La main d'Iman" (2011), "Iman" (2014)
- Josée Lapointe: Ryad Assani-Razaki: le rêve d'ailleurs . La Presse Canada (Culture) online, August 26, 2011 (French)
- Report with and about Ryad Assani-Razak ; (especially about Iman ) by Jocelyne Allard, Radio Canada , French-Canadian television, November 25, 2012. Video, 8 min, (French)
- Book review: “Die there or cannot live here” in French, on the occasion of the festival “Etonnants Voyageurs”, May 18-20, 2013 in Saint-Malo , France
- Peter Pisa: The boy cost 23 euros. Ryad Assani-Razaki's cry from Africa reveals why people flee to Europe despite warnings . Kurier.at , January 21, 2014
- Annemarie Stoltenberg : betrayed and sold ( memento from March 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) . Book tips. NDR , January 28, 2014, on "Iman"
- Thomas Andre: The story of an escape from Africa: The world is across the ocean . Review in Der Spiegel , January 31, 2014, on "Iman"
- Carsten Hueck: Roman. Strong hearts hurt souls. Ryad Assani-Razaki: "Iman" . Review on Deutschlandradio , Kultur, February 24, 2014 (with audio file)
- Ruth Renée Reif: “The African dream is Africa.” His first novel is about street children and the violence that surrounds them, in Tages-Anzeiger , February 18, 2014
- same: Interview in , “Münchner Feuilleton. Culture, Criticism, Controversies ”, March 2014
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Ulrich Rüdenauer : Global Literature. A spear from a deep past . Review in Der Tagesspiegel , Kultur, March 1, 2014
- dsb .: fear in Africa. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , magazine, March 7, 2014
- dsb .: Nobody gets away without wounds. The native African Ryad Assani-Razaki wrote his debut novel “Iman” about the fate of refugees. Badische Zeitung , March 11, 2014 (with reference to the author reading in Freiburg)
- Sophie Sumburane: Escape or: Future at home? . Review on CULTurMag, March 5, 2014
- Bernadette Conrad: Ryad Assani-Razaki's gripping debut: who has a right to luck? , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Culture, March 8, 2014, on "Iman"
- Hendrik Heinze: novel by a refugee. “Iman” by Ryad Assani-Razaki ( Memento from March 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) . Review with text excerpts. Bayerischer Rundfunk 2, Kulturwelt . March 10, 2014, audio file (4 min.)
- Horror and Magic of Africa. The book "Iman" . ZDF Mediathek, broadcast Aspects, March 14, 2014, video file (1.11 min.)
- Dialogue of Perspectives . Ryad Assani-Razaki read from “Iman” in the bookstore in Osterstrasse (Hamburg) on March 17th, 2014. Moderation, translation and reading of the German text: Sonja Finck. Book log, March 18, 2014
- Niklas Bender: group picture with misfortune. Ryad Assani-Razaki describes Africa's present. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 1, 2014, category: literature and non-fiction, p. 10.
- Simon Grimm: “What can you afford to want?” Brutally topical: the novel “Iman”. In: Kreuzer Magazin. Logbook . Supplement to the Leipzig Book Fair, 2014, p. 8.
- Johanna Metz: Just go away. No matter what it costs. "Iman" tells what can induce people to flee across the sea to Europe, in Parliament , section: The political book. Edited by the German Bundestag . No. 28–30, July 7, 2014 Just go away. No matter what it costs. Novel. ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Reading tour of "Iman" in German-speaking countries, March 2014
- The government of the province of Quebec presents the book and the stations of the reading tour on its website ( Memento from March 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), (German)
- The author in the Literaturhaus Zurich , March 10, 2014
- The author in the Center Culturel Français Freiburg ( Memento from April 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), moderation and translation: Sonja Finck, reading of the German text Corinna Henselmann. Event: Freiburg Literature Office, Center Culturel Français Freiburg, Carl Schurz Haus, Information Center 3rd World and Institut Français Freiburg, March 13, 2014
- Buchmesse International Spezial , the author at the Leipzig Book Fair 2014, March 16, v. a. to "Iman"
- The author ( Memento from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in the Heine Haus (Düsseldorf) , with the support of the Institut français , March 19, 2014. Moderation David Eisermann , translation and explanation Sonja Finck, reading of the German text by Rudolf Müller
Web links
- Literature by and about Ryad Assani-Razaki in the catalog of the German National Library
- Assani-Razaki.html Short biography and reviews of works by Ryad Assani-Razaki at perlentaucher.de
- Author's website , in French or English
- Reading sample, from Iman
- "Iman" in the "Aurora" catalog of the Canadian National Library: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada BAC / Library and Archives Canada
Similar topic
- Fatou Diome : The Belly of the Ocean. Diogenes, Zurich 2004 a. ö, ISBN 3-257-06445-4 (emigration of a boy from Africa)
Individual evidence
- ^ In the translation by Sonja Finck in Wagenbach-Verlag.
- ↑ Jocelyne Allard: Ryad Assani-Razaki . Report with and about Ryad Assani-Razaki (especially Iman ), Radio Canada, French-Canadian television, November 25, 2012 (video 8 min.)
- ^ Josée Lapointe: Ryad Assani-Razaki: le rêve d'ailleurs . La Presse Canada (Culture) online, August 26, 2011 (French)
- ↑ Ryad Assani-Razaki on the "Blue Sofa" . Christhard Läpple speaks to the author about his new book "Iman" at the Leipzig Book Fair. March 15, 2014, ZDF Mediathek, video (29.5 min.), Accessed on March 17, 2014.
- ↑ Jean-Luc Doumont: "Deux cercles" de Ryad Assani-Razaki . Made in Quebec Wordpress, June 20, 2009 (French)
- ^ Josée Lapointe: Ryad Assani-Razaki: le rêve d'ailleurs . La Presse Canada (Culture) online, August 26, 2011 (French) Own translation from the French.
- ↑ Ryad Assani-Razaki and Sonja Finck on March 19 during the author reading in the Heine Haus Düsseldorf
- ^ Quote from NN, review in the Kurier , Vienna, February 21, 2014. The quote from the book, p. 236.
- ^ Verlag Klaus Wagenbach - Iman with the support of the Québec Government. The government of the province of Québec presents the book on its website ( memento of March 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (in German)
- ↑ Ryad Assani-Razaki on the "Blue Sofa" . Christhard Läpple speaks to the author about his new book "Iman" at the Leipzig Book Fair. March 15, 2014, ZDF Mediathek, video (29.5 min.), Accessed on March 17, 2014.
- ↑ Ryad Assani-Razaki, Gesa Ufer, Frank Meyer on "Iman" ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Translation from the French Sonja Finck. In: The Literature Agents. Radioeins Berlin, for the author reading in the naTO cultural center as part of the reading festival "Leipzig reads" at the Leipzig Book Fair on March 15, 2014, broadcast on March 16, 2014, from 6 p.m. (audio file 28.30 - 34.40 minutes of the program)
- ↑ Dust jacket Iman . Wagenbach, Berlin 2014.
- ↑ see the web links and comments
- ↑ Peter Pisa: The boy cost 23 euros. Ryad Assani-Razaki's cry from Africa reveals why people flee to Europe despite warnings . Kurier.at , January 21, 2014.
- ↑ Thomas Andre: Story of an Escape from Africa: The world is beyond the ocean . Review by Der Spiegel , January 31, 2014.
- ↑ Carola Ebeling: The youth of emigrants . TAZ , March 11, 2014, p. 17.
- ↑ on March 8, 2014; In short, also at Perlentaucher
- ↑ Hendrik Heinze: novel of a refugee. “Iman” by Ryad Assani-Razaki ( Memento from March 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) . Review with text excerpts. Bayerischer Rundfunk 2, Kulturwelt . March 10, 2014 (audio file, approx. 4 min.)
- ↑ Horror and Magic of Africa. The book "Iman" ( Memento of the original from March 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . ZDF Mediathek, broadcast Aspects, March 14, 2014, video file (1.11 min.), With statements by the author
- ↑ Speaker Denis Abrahams, audio 6 minutes and speaker Denis Abrahams, audio 4 minutes , reading on March 15, 2014.
- ↑ The video was uploaded to the ZDF media library on March 15, 2014 .
- ↑ Ryad Assani-Razaki on the "Blue Sofa" . Christhard Läpple speaks to the author about his new book "Iman" at the Leipzig Book Fair. March 15, 2014, ZDF Mediathek, video (29.5 min.), Accessed on March 17, 2014.
- ↑ meant: theirs
- ↑ Simon Grimm: “What can you afford to want?” Brutally current: the novel “Iman”, in “Kreuzer Magazin. Logbook. ”Supplement to the Leipzig Book Fair 2014, p. 8.
- ↑ Ryad Assani-Razaki, Gesa Ufer, Frank Mayer on "Iman" ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: The Literature Agents. Radioeins Berlin, broadcast for reading during the Leipzig Book Fair on March 15, 2014, broadcast on March 16, 2014, from 6:00 p.m. (audio file 28.30 - 34.40 min., Including original sound from Detlev Buck, 33.15 - 33.50 min. Of the broadcast)
- ↑ Niklas Bender: group picture with misfortune. Ryad Assani-Razaki describes Africa's present. FAZ April 1, 2014, p. 10.
- ↑ Jutta Person: The Compassion Machine. Ryad Assani-Razaki's debut novel Iman tells the breathtaking story of three young people in West Africa who want to shake off their misfortune. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , 17./18. May 2014, features section
- ↑ Johanna Metz: Just get away. No matter what it costs. Novel. ( Memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), in: The Parliament. 7th July 2014.
- ↑ Excerpt see web links. Also as an e-book .
- ↑ A detailed conversation with Assani-Razaki
- ↑ Sumburane emphasizes the contrasting life plans of the two male protagonists in "Iman"
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Assani-Razaki, Ryad |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian French language writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th November 1981 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cotonou , Benin |