Author Nino Kharatishvili to talk novels on Potsdam Brandenburg Literature Festival opening day
Award-winning novelist Nino Kharatishvili will be involved in a reading evening on the opening day of the festival. Photo: Joerg Halisch.
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German-based author Nino Kharatishvili will meet readers on the opening day of this year’s Potsdam Brandenburg Literature Festival in a reading event involving fellow novelist Maria Cecilia Barbetta.
Kharatishvili, whose latest work The Cat and the General had its stage debut at Hamburg’s Thalia Theatre last month, will join Barbetta, author of Night Lights, to speak about a common theme.
What both authors share in common is that they show how much people long for a life in peace,” said a preview for the literary evening from the festival.
Organisers called Kharatishvili and Barbetta, set to sit down for the talk with the audience later this month, “two of the most important German-speaking authors of the present” in their preview, reflecting the impact their work has had on the local scene.
Mit den ersten Leseexemplaren steigt auch die Vorfreude aufs Festival!#ninoharatischwili und #mariaceciliabarbetta bestreiten im Mai gemeinsam die erste Veranstaltung des LIT:potsdam!
— LIT:potsdam (@litpotsdam) February 19, 2019
Das Gesamtprogramm und Karten für LIT:potsdam gibt es ab dem 14. März 2019!#litpotsdam pic.twitter.com/wzhd0nd2Db
The Georgian-born author’s German Book Prize-nominated novel follows protagonists in two storylines from different periods but about the same traumatic memory.
In it, Alexander Orlov, a Russian service member-turned oligarch struggles to reconcile with memories of his service during the devastating war in Chechnya in the 1990s.
A teenage girl Nura, who harboured future plans for her life as Russian troops arrived in her village during the conflict, and a Georgian woman who is a “spitting image” of her, are two other characters leading the story.
Since its nomination for the German prize, The Cat and the General and its author have also featured in reading events for the novel in cities including Zurich, Hamburg, Essen and Stuttgart.
On its part, Night Lights by Barbetta follows people in their lives in suburban Buenos Aires during the beginning of the 1970s military dictatorship in Argentina.
The meeting of the two novelists with readers, set for May 14, will be moderated by Gesa Ufer, who speak to them about intercultural communication and nuances of telling fictional stories.