The main character of the novel "Go, went, gone" is a newly retired professor named Richard, who meets asylum seekers on the Oranienplatz in Berlin and initially only seeks answers to his own questions. Because he assumes that these young men must know how to kill time, if you have too much of it, or know what the loss of loved ones feels like and how to handle it. Richard is a classical philosopher and the Greek gods and legends are included in the novel, because he gives asylum seekers the names of the legendary figures, which remind him of the fates of the exiles. It is a slow approach, a cautious acquaintance, which then expands into an ever increasing commitment to the refugees and is heading for at least a short-term, positive ending - that is for Richard; because the white European finally learns from the Africans who he really is.
In conversation: Jenny Erpenbeck
Jenny Erpenbeck bei SBS Source: Trudi Latour
Never before have there been so many displaced persons as today - and never before was the question of how to handle the asylum seekers politically so controversial. Award-winning German author Jenny Erpenbeck has written a novel on the subject, entitled Go, Went, Gone. We talked to her about her research, the relationships that developed from her interviews with the asylum seekers, and the question of whether people can gain a new understanding of the subject matter via a novel.
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