Portrait of Amir Gudarzi

Photo: Jürgen Pletterbauer

MK:

Literatur:Raum: „Das Ende ist nah“

Book presentation & reading with Amir Gudarzi

 Habibi Kiosk
 27.11.2024
 1 hour
 Free of charge
 Habibi Kiosk
 27.11.2024
 1 hour
 Free of charge

In the second edition of the “Literatur:Raum” series, author Amir Gudarzi will be a guest at the Habibi Kiosk with his novel “Das Ende ist nah” (2023) for a reading and discussion. A novel about foreignness and being an outsider, about courage, the power of language and love. And a precious, deeply moving literary document that provides a rare insight into what people take on when they flee.

During the protests in Iran in 2009, former student A. is forced to leave his country. He takes the memories of a childhood and youth full of violence with him. An artist becomes a refugee in Austria, who is openly and secretly despised and has to endure not only loneliness and despair, but also hunger and humiliation in camps and homes. In Vienna, he meets Sarah, who falls head over heels in love with him. A., who is unable to open up, is both an object of study and support for her, although he himself is looking for support. In “Das Ende ist nah”, Amir Gudarzi tells the story of a man’s will to persevere after fleeing with great literary power.

Amir Gudarzi, born in Tehran in 1986, went to the only theater school in Iran at the time and then studied scenic writing. Since 2009, he has lived in exile in Vienna, where he works as an award-winning (now) Austrian playwright and author. In 2021 he was a fellow at the Literary Colloquium in Berlin and received the City of Vienna’s Prize for Literature, in 2022 he was awarded the Kleist Prize for Young Playwrights and the Christian Dietrich Grabbe Prize, and in the 2023/24 season he was in-house author at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. “Das Ende ist nah” is his first novel.

The “Literatur:Raum” series takes an in-depth look at current literary trends. Author and director Dîlan Z. Çapan invites exciting authors to talks and poetically stages new texts. Alternating between the Werkraum and the Habibi Kiosk.