Lesung mit Thị Thanh Thảo Trần "Menschen wie wir"

In the organizer's words:

On May 7, Thị Thanh Thảo Trần will read from her novel "Menschen wie wir" at the book and design store "Siebter Himmel". The reading will be hosted by Pauline Braune.

Her parents meet on a Vietnamese island. They are poor, but happy together. When an offer comes from the GDR, the father decides to work there for just a few years. He cannot yet foresee what consequences this decision will have for his family. His wife and daughter - the narrator of the novel - follow him to Germany years later. There, however, they are not welcomed with open arms. Arriving is increasingly revealed to be a fiction, but going back would feel like failure.

"People like us" are those whose names no one here can pronounce properly. Who have to worry every year that their residence permit will not be renewed. They remember the songs and poems from their old homeland and yet they don't want to go back. Thị Thanh Thảo Trần tells the story of what it means to live in two languages and two countries. She shows what radical decisions poverty can lead us to make and what sacrifices we are prepared to make for our love.

Price information:

10 | 12 | 15 Euro solidarity pricing system (everyone pays what they can and want)