A small village in Bavaria, late 1950s: A child is born from a union no one here would have thought possible. The mother is Silesian and belongs to the group of expellees who settled in the village a decade earlier. The father is a medical student from Syria who comes to the village to learn German at the Goethe-Institut. At the time they met, they had no common language, and their communication remained strained throughout their lives. Thus, the child grows up in an atmosphere of silence, searching for a refuge within its own existence, and finds it in literature. "Refuge" describes the development of an author who, although he finds his own voice and achieves success, remains lost in life. It is also an attempt to understand the parents' story from a distance and to trace the moments when they might have had a chance to become a balanced family. And finally, it is a story of escape and possible arrival that took place during the 'economic miracle years', but whose effects are still felt today. biography Friedrich Ani, born in 1959 in Kochel am See, worked as a reporter before devoting himself entirely to writing. He writes novels, children's books, poetry, radio plays, screenplays, and short stories. His books have been translated into several languages and have received numerous awards. Friedrich Ani lives in Munich. New product