Nach der Flucht

As a child, Ilija Trojanow fled with his family from Bulgaria, an experience that has forever marked him and informs his life still today. He reflects in this poetic and intelligent book about what it means to be a lifelong refugee. He talks about the constant daily loneliness that is inherent in the “otherness” of a refugee. About how little the past of a refugee counts in the new environment he or she finds oneself in. About what it means to exist between two languages. About the lies one tells as a refugee to those left back in the old homeland. And, about how before leaving one at least exactly knew why one was so unhappy.