Die Zeit, 13.10.2005

Korea is guest of honour at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair. Christof Siemes has travelled there, where he's visited four authors and Paju Book City, built in a swamp 30 kilometres from Seoul: "Paju is unique in the world, an ecologically correct showcase city dedicated to the book. It's a modern, globalised chic of concrete, glass, wood and iron, with artificial rust patina, erected with subsidies by the Ministry of Culture." Paju, Siemes continues, "rationalises and cuts costs in the publishing industry. At the same time the pressure from competition is heightened when your major rival sets up in a big way across the street. Yu Jong Koo of the Paju Book City Cultural Foundation is delighted by the whole situation. He presses his fists together and raises them to the sky. Brutal competition as the turbo motor for sky-rocketing growth – this is a strange capitalistic euphoria for a German visitor."

"We in Northwest Africa encourage Europeans to accept Turkey in the EU," declares Moroccan author Tahar Ben Jelloun, who has a clear idea of how things should progress from there: "First Turkey, then Northwest Africa. Why? Because this region shares a common, and often painful history with at least three European states, namely France, Spain and Italy. ... A Moroccan, Algerian or Tunisian has more common ground with a French person or an Italian than with an inhabitant of the Gulf States."


Süddeutsche Zeitung, 13.10.2005

"The scenes of refugees trying to climb over the six-meter-high barbed wire fence or exposed to life-and-death conditions in the desert have affected me deeply. I could have been one of them, had I had a little less luck," writes Ugandan author Moses Isegawa, for whom the images of Ceuta and Melilla are a reminder of how he himself left Uganda. "When I saw those scenes in Ceuta, I imagined the danger that these people were exposing themselves to, the money they had paid and their desire to find a new life at any price. There may have been writers among them, who were separated from their future publishers by that fence. We'll never know."


Die Tageszeitung, 13.10.2005

Ingo Schulze talks in an interview about his new book "Neue Leben" and its protagonist Türmer. "Of course, the book clings to my thin 'autobiography'. I grew up in Dresden, went to the Kreuzschule, studied in Jena, worked at the theatre in Altenburg, founded a newspaper, and thus took the step from art to business, from the world of words to the world of numbers. And I was also in Leipzig in 1989 (where the biggest civic demonstrations took place – ed). But Türmer's view of things is much more significant. He was always an observer, I was naive, I was a lot more scared in Leipzig than Türmer was." The collapse of the GDR "meant a huge loss of meaning for artists and intellectuals. The Cold War, the competition between the systems, was over. From then on, brave words were no longer necessary, it was the numbers that counted – or at least it seemed that way. When we founded the newspaper in 1990, we saw that well: we wanted to encourage democracy and suddenly we were nothing more than business people trying to make sure there's enough money for the next issue."


Der Tagesspiegel, 13.10.2005

Barbara Wahlster spoke with south Korean author Hwang Sok-yong who spent seven years in a South Korean jail for having travelled to North Korea. The experience won't leave him: "Recently, a famous shaman who's a friend of mine performed here in Berlin. I had never told her about Kim Il Sung, but nonetheless, his spirit came to her and she took on exactly his posture and addressed me exactly the way that the North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung, father of the present ruler Kim Jong Il, always addressed me: author Hwang."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13.10.2005

Moscow has more billionaires than New York, and rising oil prices are just making them richer, writes Kerstin Holm, who has been to the Millionaire fair in Moscow, and seen the day-to-day consumer articles on display there, for example "off-road vehicles for the Taiga, silver armchairs for the living room, brightly coloured Blüthner concert grand pianos and extra-large Jacuzzis". And what's more: "In hall six, a stud from the Moscow region presents gracious Akhal-Teke stallions that transport you into the world of the Thousand and One Nights with their swanlike necks, long bodies and soft, silky hair. Just to get into this fairy tale of the here-and-now costs you thirty euros, while a VIP ticket will run you 250 dollars. Cigar Clan magazine gives the style-minded feudal lord a lesson in the good life. And new laser hair transplant technology perfects his outer appearance. For the millionaire's wife there are décolleté mink evening dresses, select meditation techniques, Aryuveda and Yoga, which promise to cure the greatest personal crises."