THE NEXT READING IS FROM

“THE JEWEL GARDEN”

TUESDAY MaY 31, 2016, 7 PM

HAUS DER BEGEGNUNG
Rennweg 12
6020 Innsbruck

Images of Life: The Jewel Garden

MEET Susanne Ayoub

DISCUSSION AND BOOK PRESENTATION

Like so many others, Christmas Eve in 1955 begins for Laura with discord in the family home. But then an unexpected visitor appears: Younis, a young man from Baghdad. And all at once everything changes. Before the year is out, Laura and Younis are a couple. Laura leaves Vienna, her parents, and her friends, and follows Younis to Baghdad.

But what did she really know about him, about his homeland, about the political turmoil that would soon overshadow Iraq? Can their love survive times like these? Susanne Ayoub’s novel was inspired by her parents’ moving life story and love story. Her protagonists move in the area of tension between two different cultures and religions.

Susanne Ayoub herself was born in Baghdad. At age 6, she fled with her mother to Vienna and went to a Catholic boarding school. Under tremendous pressure from her father, she later converted to Islam. Today she lives in Vienna. She works as an author and director for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, writes novels, and makes documentary films. In 2014 she received the Dr. Karl Renner Prize for Journalism.

Moderator: Dr. Elisabeth ANKER, Director of the Haus der Begegnung (House of Encounter)
Contribution: 7.00 EUR 7 or 0.7 for Groups / Reduced: 5. EUR ; with a family pass, EUR 3.50; with a Kulturpass, admission is free.