Along the trenches A JOURNEY THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE TO ISFAHAN
About the special
An area that still seems strange and rugged by wars and catastrophes begins east of Germany and extends over Russia to the Orient.
Navid Kermani has traveled along the trenches that are currently opening up in Europe: from his hometown of Cologne eastwards to the Baltic States and from there south across the Caucasus to Isfahan, the home of his parents. With an unerring instinct for speaking details, he tells of forgotten regions in his travel diary, where history is still being made today.
Navid Kermani traveled on behalf of SPIEGEL from his hometown of Cologne through Eastern Europe to Isfahan, the home of his parents.
The journey took him right through the middle of the Jewish "Paleon of Settlement" of the Tsarist era, the "Bloodlands" of World War II, along the rift between East and West, where the Cold War is far from over and becomes a hot war in Donbass.
He has seen the ruins of destroyed cultures and the traces of old and new devastation. Above all, he has met people who are torn inside because they have to take sides in search of home and prosperity. With just a few strokes he brings the nightlife of the big cities to life, shops like in Soviet times, hip cafes, the serenity near the front and the fear of the other, whoever that is.
"The example of Navid Kermani shows how full of preconditions an authorship must be made, how often broken, marginalized, saddened and at the same time euphoric, how much, despite all the criticism, world-enthusiastic it must be to take on the role of the political writer also shines particularly beautifully, trustworthy. "
Navid Kermani lives as a freelance writer in Cologne. He has received numerous awards for his novels, essays and reports, including the Kleist Prize , the Joseph Breitbach Prize and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade .
Rainald Goetz, acceptance speech for the 2015 Büchner Prize |
