What do we remember and what don’t we remember? Which stories interest us and what are our memory gaps? This author talk with Jehona Kicaj and Henrik Szántó is about the inseparable link between past, present and future. With their debuts, both Hanoverian authors take a literary look at gaps, speechlessness and silence in relation to war, trauma and their generational transmission. They challenge us to reflect both individually and collectively as a society. Because our present in a city of immigration is characterized by stories that need to be heard in order to offer a window to new perspectives.
Eliah Sakakushev-von Bismarck will lead the discussion and you are cordially invited to share your thoughts in the audience discussion.
About the authors
Carl Philipp Roth
Jehona Kicaj, born in Kosovo in 1991, lives in Hanover. Her debut novel “ë” was shortlisted for the German Book Prize this year and received the Literature Prize of the City of Hanover. Among other things, her novel deals with the traumatizing consequences of war for the next generation from an internal perspective.
Marvin Ruppert
Henrik Szántó, born in 1988, author and presenter with Hungarian and Finnish roots, also lives in Hanover. He was nominated for the Bachmann Prize in 2024 and his debut novel “Treppe aus Papier” was published in 2025. It tells the story of its inhabitants from the Nazi era to the present day from the perspective of a house.
