Joana Osman

A family story from Palestine

After the lecture by journalist Susanne Glass, a second evening on Palestine. Only this time from a different angle! Sabiha and Ahmed are firmly rooted in their hometown of Jaffa, run a cinema and get along well with their neighbors, including Jewish ones. And yet in 1948 they had to flee with their children during the turmoil of the founding of the State of Israel. A decades-long odyssey takes the author's grandparents first to Lebanon and then to Turkey. Always looking for a new home for her children. They are never really welcome anywhere – and yet they neither lose their desire for life nor their sense of humor. Joana Osman goes in search of her family's history. Full of imagination and wit, she lets the ghosts of the past dance in her autofictional novel!

Joana Osman was born in 1982 to a Palestinian father and a German mother. Her father died shortly after her birth, but her mother kept in touch with his family. Osman studied American studies, theater studies and art history and founded the peace movement “The Peace Factory” in 2012, which aims to reconcile hostile ethnic groups. Her debut novel “At the Bottom of Heaven” was published in 2019 and her second book “Where the Ghosts Dance” was published in 2023.

Joana Osman, “Where the Ghosts Dance”, Verlag C. Bertelsmann 2023, €24.00

Photo Mica Zeitz