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. Sara Sellami reviewed Osman Engin’s 2013 novel Deutschland allein zu Haus (Germany Home Alone): Deutschland allein zu Haus is a novel […]

Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Sara Sellami: Deutschland allein zu Haus is a novel written by the Turkish-German author, Osman Engin, and was published in 2013. The book tells the story of a Turkish-German family coming back from vacations in Turkey to find out that the neo-Nazi party was elected and plans on getting […]

English Translation: In Times of Fading Light, translated by Anthea Bell, Minneapolis: Grey Wolf Press, 2013. Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Jennifer Lau Family dynamics, interestingly enough, rarely change across time. Society progresses and human beings adapt, but internal relations among those who share blood and genetics remain mostly the same. The literary fiction […]

Rafik Schami’s young adult novel A Hand Full of Stars details three years of a young Syrian boy’s life as he attempts to come into his own during the turbulent decades that ensued after Syrian independence in 1946. The book shows the difficulties of life under an unstable government, whose leadership was constantly changing due […]