Olga Grjasnowa

Novelist Olga Grjasnowa was born in Azerbaijan and immigrated to Germany aged 12. Her novel Der Russe ist einer, der Birken Liebt (All Russian Men Love Birch Trees) published in German in February 2012, captures the mood of a younger generation who cannot escape the trauma of the past. Grjasnowa has been awarded numerous prizes and scholarships and is currently studying dance at the Berlin Free University.
Dilemmas of Difference – German Jews, Jewish Germans
Four generations after the Holocaust, Europe’s fastest growing Jewish community faces new challenges, from Günter Grass’s anti-Israel poem What Must Be Said, to furious debate over the legality of circumcision and assaults against Jews in the street. Writers of two generations came to Jewish Book Week 2013 for a keynote discussion on what it means to be Jewish and German today. The discussion raised provocative questions about difference and identity that resonate with all multicultural ...