Yvonne Owuor Showcasing her Book “Dust” in Berlin

World renowned Kenyan author, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, is in Germany.

The author best known for her novel, “Weight of Whispers”,  is attending the 14th International Literature Festival Berlin (ILB).  Her first novel, “Weight of Whispers”, won her the Caine Prize in 2003. She will be showcasing her new novel, “Dust” at the event in Berlin.

Yvonne was born in Kenya in 1968 and studied English at the Kenyatta University before proceeding to the University of Reading for her masters.

Her novel Dust is set in Kenya and goes through the upheavals Kenya has faced since colonialism, to Mau Mau, to the Referundum in 2005 and subsequently to the post election violence in 2008.

Odidi Oganda, running for his life, is gunned down in the streets of Nairobi. His grief-stricken sister, Ajany, just returned from Brazil, and their father bring his body back to their crumbling home in the Kenyan drylands, seeking some comfort and peace. But the murder has stirred memories long left untouched and unleashed a series of unexpected events: Odidi and Ajany’s mercurial mother flees in a fit of rage; a young Englishman arrives at the Ogandas’ house, seeking his missing father; a hardened policeman who has borne witness to unspeakable acts reopens a cold case; and an all-seeing Trader with a murky identity plots an overdue revenge. In scenes stretching from the violent upheaval of contemporary Kenya back through a shocking political assassination in 1969 and the Mau Mau uprisings against British colonial rule in the 1950s, we come to learn the secrets held by this parched landscape, buried deep within the shared past of the family and of a conflicted nation.

 You can catch Yvonne and listen to her read from her book, “Dust” in Berlin on:

15.09.2014 19:30 Uhr

Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Schaperstrasse 24
10719 Berlin
Oberes Foyer

Moderation Susanne Gehrmann
Sprecher: Regina Gisbertz
Preis 8 Euro / ermäßigt 6 / Schüler 4

 

16.09.2014 19:00 Uhr

Collegium Hungaricum Berlin
Dorotheenstraße 12
10117 Berlin

Moderation Daniel Schreiber
Preis 8 Euro / ermäßigt 6 / Schüler 4