Katrina Tuvera - „Kollaborateure“ // Moderation & Gespräch: Cornelia Zetsche

In the organizer's words:

The Harbour Front Literature Festival is delighted to welcome Katrina Tuvera with her novel The Collaborators !

The Filipino author Katrina Tuvera will present her latest work about loyalty, betrayal and life under Japanese occupation at the Rathauspassagen on October 19. Die Kollaborateure tells the story of a family caught between survival and conviction - an impressive portrait of the colonial past.

Katrina Tuvera has published a collection of short stories and two novels, both of which have won the Philippine National Book Award. She has also co-edited two anthologies of Philippine literature. The Collaborators is her first book in German.

We cordially invite you to an evening with one of the most important literary voices in Southeast Asia.

About the book "The Collaborators"

Carlos has not lived up to his own ideals, now it is too late. But who can afford to pass judgment on difficult decisions in political crises? Filipino author Katrina Tuvera tells of existential conflicts and the history of her country.

The 20th century is drawing to a close and an entire nation is following the impeachment proceedings against the country's president with bated breath. Meanwhile, Carlos Armando is on his deathbed.

While his wife and daughter cannot stop arguing even during their hospital visits, he begins to remember - first of all his childhood in the country at the time of the war, the independence of the Philippines, the rise of Marcos and the military dictatorship. Betrayal and conformity, rebellion and subordination determine his own life as well as that of his best friend, who pays a high price for it.

"The Collaborators" is a perceptive novel that tells of various complicities. With great empathy, Katrina Tuvera puts the reader in the mind of a collaborator whose family has to live in the entanglements of his lies.

Publication date: August 14, 2025

About the author:

Katrina Tuvera has published a short story collection and two novels, for each of which she received the National Book Award of the Philippines, and co-edited two anthologies of Filipino literature. She lives in Manila. "The Collaborators" is her first book in German.