Triple the Fun

I shall be making good use of my magic carpet* on Wednesday, 2 March. Because there are three readings I want to go to that day (so far) and two of them are in London.

I shall start with Julya Rabinovich reading from her fresh novel Splithead (trans. Tess Lewis) and Jenny Erpenbeck at the Royal National Hotel in London, at 1 pm. Then I'll have a bite to eat and pop back to the hotel for Johanna Adorján, reading from An Exclusive Love (trans. Anthea Bell, picture of rose petals on the cover) at 5.30 - both part of Jewish Book Week.

From there I'll whizz over to Berlin's Festsaal Kreuzberg for Selim Özdogan, who's launching his long-awaited follow-up to Die Tochter des Schmieds, Heimstraße 52. Please ignore the picture of the orange on the cover - the novel has nothing to do with fruit. But the citrus thing does have the advantage of freeing book buyers from pronouncing Özdogan's difficult name (approximately: ers-de-wan), as they can simply go into a shop and ask for "that book with the orange on the cover". Cleverly enough, his publishers are re-releasing the previous novel in the trilogy with a picture of a fig on it. No doubt part three will feature a watermelon.

I may have mentioned it in the past, but just in case you weren't listening - a Selim Özdogan reading is always an extraordinary event. Selim is a fabulous entertainer and usually reads a cross-section of his writing, from novels to short stories to poetry, with the odd snippet thrown in that he finds along the way. You should definitely go along if he reads in your town.


*Magic carpet available for hire, prices on request.