Biography<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Novelist and philosopher Kica Kolbe<\/strong> (born in 1951 near Skopje) moved from Macedonia (now North Macedonia) to Germany in 1984 and has lived in Cologne ever since. The interplay between German and her native Macedonian shapes her literary style. Although she usually begins each novel in German, she ultimately writes and publishes her work in Macedonian. The themes of exile, borders, refugees, and trauma in Kolbe\u2019s prose are deeply influenced by her own background, as she was born into a family of refugees. Her debut novel, \u201cAegeans\u201d (1999), which recounts the escape of both her parents\u2019 families across the border into Yugoslavia during the Greek Civil War (1946\u20131949), will soon be published in Greek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story of Nika Gawrilowa, a young woman who left Bitola for Dessau in 1931 to study at the Bauhaus, blends history and fiction. In the past,\u00a0every Macedonian woman had a room with a loom \u2014 the only space \u00a0of \u00a0women’s creativity\u00a0\u2014\u00a0since \u00a0women were not allowed to\u00a0study art.\u00a0Among the Gawrilow women, there were always those passionately devoted to weaving. Nika\u2019s granddaughter Demiana, born in Germany, searches for answers to help her understand the paradoxical behavior of the Gawrilow women, which has also shaped her own life. The narrative is polyphonic, multi-voiced, multi-layered, and as intricate as a woven fabric. In Berlin, a therapist working with refugee children through the art of Anselm Kiefer is suddenly confronted with his own long-buried fear of the lake. A friend invites him to a conference in his birthplace, a city in one of two neighboring \u201clake countries.\u201d He has not returned for thirty years, ever since he and his mother left his father and went abroad. His mother reveals that his fear originates from his father\u2019s escape during the war, when his mother drowned. His friend tells him that the son of the minister from the other lake country\u2014the man who signed the law forbidding refugees like his father from ever returning\u2014will also attend the conference. How can he forgive \u201cthe enemy\u201d? The characters and countries remain nameless, laying bare the stark matrix of war\u2019s madness.
In two of her six novels, \u201cThe Gawrilow Women\u201d (2008) and \u201cThe Knight and the Byzantine Woman\u201d (2020), the self-perception and external perception of emigrants play a central role, with plots unfolding between Germany and Macedonia, or Germany and Italy (Tuscany). The main characters are Germans as well as Germans with immigrant backgrounds, predominantly from the Balkans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Outstanding title:<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
THE GAWRILOW WOMEN (2008)<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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No. of pp<\/strong>: 312<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nAwards<\/strong> and honors:<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Latest title:<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
FORGIVENESS (2024)<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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No. of pp<\/strong>: 276<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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