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Ilija Trojanow reads and discusses!
In his just-published novel “A Thousand and One Tomorrows,” Ilija Trojanow creates a passionate portrait of his courageous heroine Cya, a traveler in time and place who comes from the peaceful and self-determined future and tries to free the past from its shackles. Like no other author, he combines narrative virtuosity and critical thinking to create a modern epic that transcends all boundaries, illuminates space and time, and dares to take a fresh look at the future. In the process, Ilija Trojanow reinvents the utopian novel – a novel that tells of the inexhaustible power of our thinking.
In the midst of climate catastrophe, war, and the alarming rise of the New Right in Europe, Ilija Trojanow is writing a utopian novel of hope. He will discuss why he has done so with festival director Andrea Kuhn following his reading. The conversation will focus on the challenges and possibilities of a utopian artistic practice that takes its subject matter seriously. How does one write utopian in an increasingly dystopian system?
Ilija Trojanow
Ilija Trojanow, born in Sofia in 1965, fled with his family via Yugoslavia and Italy to Germany in 1971, where they were granted political asylum. In 1972, the family moved on to Kenya. Interrupted by a four-year stay in Germany, Ilija Trojanow lived in Nairobi until 1984. This was followed by a stay in Paris. From 1984 to 1989 Trojanow studied law and ethnology in Munich. There he founded the Kyrill & Method publishing house and the Marino publishing house. In 1998, Trojanow moved to Mumbai, and in 2003 to Cape Town. Today, when he is not traveling, he lives in Vienna.
His well-known novels such as “The World Collector” and “Power and Resistance” as well as his travel reports such as “On the Inner Shores of India” are celebrated bestsellers and have won numerous awards.