As part of their work for the Multicultural Germany undergraduate seminar at UC Berkeley, students in the course have reviewed recent German books relating in various ways to topics of migration, multiculturalism, and contemporary German identity. Ying Ruan reviewed Aglaja Veteranyi’s novel “Warum das Kind das Polenta kocht” (Why the Child is Cooking the Polenta):  […]

English translation: Why the Child is Cooking the Polenta, translated by Vincent King, Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press , 2012. Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Ying Ruan: Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Romanian writer Aglaja Veteranyi in 1999. The narrator is an unnamed girl, who travels with […]

Seventeen years before, Mehmet Umut illegally immigrated from Turkey to Germany. His presence was tolerated there until he became unemployed. Fearing he would apply for welfare, policemen were sent to his apartment to roust him from his bed and have him deported. Much of this drama follows the determined Mehmet as he struggles to sneak […]