Djinns

For thirty years, Hüseyin has worked in Germany, taking every extra shift and carefully saving, even as he provides for his wife and four children. Finally, he has set aside enough to buy an apartment back in Istanbul - a new centre for his loved ones and a place for him to retire. But just as this future is in reach, Hüseyin's tired heart gives up. His family rush to him, travelling from Germany by plane and car, each of his children conflicted as they process their relationship with their parents and each other. Reminiscent of Bernardine Evaristo or Zadie Smith, Djinns portrays a family at the end of the 20th century in all its complexity: full of secrets, questions, silence and love.

Fatma Aydemir is an author, playwright and journalist. She is a Europe columnist for the Guardian, co-editor of literary magazine Delfi and was a long-time editor at Berlin-based periodical Die Tageszeitung. Her 2017 debut novel, Ellbogen (Elbow), received numerous literary prizes in Germany, and she co-edited the 2019 essay collection Your Homeland Is Our Nightmare, which became an overnight sensation in German-speaking Europe and is now available in English translation. Dschinns (Djinns), her second novel, was a Spiegel bestseller and shortlisted for the German Book Prize. It has been adapted for multiple theatre performances and will soon be adapted for cinema. Aydemir lives and works in Berlin.