Fiction Book Group: In the Belly Of the Queen by Karosh Taha

Our book group is open to all. Attend every meeting, occasionally or just once a lifetime. All we ask is that you read the book in advance and take part in the discussion. There’s a short introduction by a member of staff, a group regular, or someone we know with a special interest in the book in question.

We follow Amal, Younes, Raffiq and Shahira as they navigate love, loss, identity and belonging in their Kurdish-Germany community. In her kaleidoscopic novel, Karosh Taha expands our ideas of class, race and gender as she loops two stories around an invisible lynchpin: a woman who defies all expectations, a blank canvas for projections from all those around her.

Deftly translated from German by Grashina Gabelmann, the book can be explored from either end, creating two very different narratives. We’re excited to see how the narrative you start with impacts the discussion within the group this month, and how people feel about this unusual format!

“Together, the twin narratives generate a memorable portrait of youth in a Kurdish-German (post)migrant community, one that gains depth and interest from the disagreements and inconsistencies among its narrators. Taha is a talent. Read this, and then read whatever she writes next.” Exberliner

Karosh Taha, born in 1987 in Zaxo, Iraq, has lived in Germany since 1997. In the Belly of the Queen is her second novel and won her the Alfred Döblin Prize.

Our book groups – Fiction (monthly), Pagan (bi-monthly), Non-Fiction (roughly quarterly)

A free event. Refreshments included