/ARTS WEEKLY/GERMANY: A Season for Angry Literature

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Clive Freeman

BERLIN, Oct 21 2003 (IPS) - Award-winning author-journalist from Moscow Anna Politkovskaja was not among the scores of Russian writers seen moving about the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, which this year focused on contemporary Russian literature.

But she did show up in Berlin where, on the eve of the Fair, she scooped the inaugural Lettre Ulysses literary award worth 50,000 Euros (58,200 dollars) for her scathingly critical account of the Russian war in Chechnya.

Isabel Hilton, the Lettre jury spokeswoman in Berlin, spoke of the writer enduring all manner of physical hardship and danger during her research on a book which she had written "with urgency and unconcealed outrage" after 50 visits to Chechnya.

Bloody clashes between Russian soldiers and "breakaway" Chechnyan rebels are a regular feature of daily life in the embattled province.

Hilton claimed that U.S. President George W. Bush, when recently welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington, had "favourably" commented on the manner in which the Russian government was dealing with the long- running Chechnyan conflict.

"I have to say that anyone who has read, as our Jury has, the work of Politkovskaja, must have found that note of congratulation more than jarring," said Hilton.

It was widely expected that the talented, 45-year-old Russian writer would be a guest at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair – the world’s largest – but ultimately she did not get an invitation, leading to rumours that her attendance might have caused "embarrassment" to Moscow officials attending the event.

Germany’s Minister of State for Culture, Christina Weiss, had opened the mammoth 55th Book Fair, in the presence of Russian media and communication minister Michail Lessin.

In Berlin, praise had been heaped on Politkovskaja for her "courage and determination" in bringing people closer to the realities of the Chechnyan conflict, in a compelling, French-published reportage called "Tchetchenie: le desonneur russe."

The Lettre Ulysses Award Ceremony in Berlin was held in a giant marquee close to the new Federal Chancellery. In addition to Politkovskaja, the 2nd Lettre literary prize, worth 30,000 Euro (34,900 dollars), went to Somali-born author Nuruddin Farah, 58, for a book titled, "Yesterday, Tomorrow: Voices from the Somali Diaspora."

His book research had taken him on a journey lasting nine years and tens of thousands of miles, tracking down Somali exiles in Scandinavia, Rome and other places in Africa. Farah said the reason the book took so long to complete was because he had continued working on his novels at the same time.

"I was very glad when l finished it," he said in Berlin. "But not very glad when it was published. I thought about all the terrible things that are said in the book, and the terrible things that have happened to people that will now be recorded in a way that will never help anyone to forget."

Isabel Hilton, a contributor to the New Yorker, The Independent daily newspaper, and the New York Times Magazine, told the Berlin award ceremony audience that Farah, who today lives in exile in Cape Town in South Africa, had "repeatedly explored the sufferings of his homeland in his writing."

The 20,000 Euro (23,300 dollars) 3rd Prize in Berlin was picked up by 49- year-old Chinese writer, director and independent producer, Jiang Hau, who spent four years in Mongolia preparing a book about poachers operating in tough terrain.

The author witnessed their harsh daily struggle to survive and found himself drawn into their "clandestine world of illicit weapons and official brutality," say the Lettre organisers.

Frank Berberich and Esther Gallodoro of the Lettre Ulysses Award Foundation said the Berlin literary prizes, which are now to be awarded annually, were conceived because, "reportage literature has a long and distinguished tradition and may be counted amongst the most fascinating journalistic and literary forms."

The Lettre Ulysses awards are sponsored by the Strasbourg-based Aventis Foundation in conjunction with the Goethe Institute. Lettre International is a cultural magazine which was founded in Berlin 15 years ago. It is published quarterly in seven foreign languages.

On the final day of the Frankfurt Book Fair Sunday (Oct 12) the outspoken U.S. novelist Susan Sontag, 70, accepted the prestigious peace prize from the German booksellers’ association.

In doing so, the fierce opponent of the U.S.-led war in Iraq noted the "deliberate absence" from the award ceremony of the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Daniel Coats, claiming this was typical of the Bush administration’s "ideology."

She talked of a "transatlantic divide" shaped by latent antagonism and the U.S. view that it alone could save civilisation. "They see themselves as defending civilisation, and of barbarians being outside the gates," she said. Only their country, "with God on its side," could act.

Sontag, of Polish-Lithuanian Jewish descent, has written novels and non- fiction, essays and short stories, which together have been translated into more than 30 languages.

In all 6,400 exhibitors and over 1,000 authors from more than 100 countries participated in the Fair, in which 350,000 titles were on view in the huge 78,000 square-metre exhibition area.

Germany has been flooded by literary events in the past three weeks. In addition to the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Lettre Ulysses awards, the 3rd Berlin "International Literary Festival" was held recently in the German capital.

Prominent among the bevy of writers descending on Berlin were Chinese author Zang Jie; Indonesian novelist Ayu Utami, whose debut work, "Saman," was viewed as a literary sensation when first published in 1998; India’s prolific 73- year-old post-modern writer, O.V.Vijayan, and Athens-born children’s writer Eugene Trivizas, who has written more than 100 children’s books and 20 plays and musicals in the past 30 years.

Trivizas’ 1993-authored youngsters book, "Three Little Wolves and a Big Bad Pig" sold more than a million copies in the United States.

He told IPS that he was surprised by the success of the book in the United States "where at times, it seems, there’s a culture for war. Still the book has a considerable audience there. It’s heartening."

Quizzed about the aftermath of war in Iraq, the writer argued that President Bush’s "axis of evil language" was a medieval way of thinking. "Causes and effects aren’t considered any more. Both sides want to destroy one another. There are no compromises. It’s all so barbaric," he says.

More than 350 literary events were staged at Berlin city theatres, schools, cinemas and other cultural buildings during the 12-day festival, which cost 450,000 dollars and attracted more than 30,000 visitors.