The latest novel by the Palestinian author Zakaria Mohammed, Cyclamen tells a story from present-day Ramallah, at the same time creating a literary portrait of life in West Jordan. The writer leads us not only through Ramallah's streets and cafes, but also past the Israeli checkpoints that criss-cross the Palestinian territories - shattered into separate zones.
Searching for a treasure supposedly buried by Ottoman soldiers in World War I, the narrator, a journalist and writer, finds himself confronted with the news that his brother, who disappeared in Lebanon, is still alive. The family sets out in search of the missing brother. A man suddenly appears at the father's funeral - perhaps the brother. But before they can get to the bottom of it, the two hypothetical siblings encounter angry Israeli settlers ...Cyclamen is a novel about the impossibility of realizing personal needs and goals in a place and time governed by political interests.
Zakaria Mohammed, born in 1951 in Nablus, studied Arabic literature in Baghdad and worked in Amman, Beirut und Damaskus as a freelance journalist. Today he lives and works in Ramallah.
Moderator: Friederike Pannewick (Berlin) Language: Arabic and German with translation
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