Wherever You Are (European Literature Days 2022)

"Wherever you are" is a story about a German-Vietnamese family. The main character of the story is Kieu, who together with her parents left the communist regime to settle in Germany.  Kieu calls herself Kim because that's easier for her friends in Berlin and because she would like to be German and not only adapt to become German. On the occasion of a visit to her relatives in the US, Kim explores new aspects of her family and her life. She rediscovers her identity, her roots and finds answers to the question of where she comes from. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Khue Pham (*1982, Berlin) is a daughter of Vietnamese immigrants. She studied communication and sociology in London and worked as a journalist for various media in Englisch-speaking countries. Since 2010, she has been working for the famous weekly DIE ZEIT.  “Wherever you are” is her debut novel. It made her one of the most important voices of the Vietnamese diaspora in Germany. Khue Pham will join the conversation from Berlin, her translator Xuan Hang Nguyen will join from Bonn- online.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR 

Xuan Hang Nguyen (*1982, Ha Tay) studied German as foreign language, sociology and didactics of work teaching in Hanoi and at the University of Augsburg and graduated with an MA. She now works as a lecturer for Vietnamese language at the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of Bonn and at the Federal Language Office. She has done literary translations for the Goethe-Institut: 1) My Vietnam. Stories. From the Vietnam, mitteldeutscher verlag 2020) and 2) Ferdinand von Schirach: Terror. A play (to be published by ZZZReview)