PROGRAMM

JUAN GABRIEL VÁSQUEZ is considered one of the most important living Latin American writers, whose literary work both continues and innovates the great literary tradition of writers like Julio Cortazar, Mario Vargas Llosa, or his fellow Colombian, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He is one of those ingenious storytellers who uncover hidden worlds while seducing the reader to indulge in the joy of reading. Combining history and fiction, he draws a complex tableau of Colombian society that is still today marked by violence, drug trade, and inequality. His most recent book, an account of two generations’ struggle for big ideals and justice, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and Latin America’s recent history, has just been published in German as Wenn es an Licht fehlt. In a conversation with PHILIPP BLOM, he will talk about the place of literature and writing in disentangling the multilayered contemporary world.