Shida Bazyar: »Die Lücken«

No village is innocent—and certainly not a German village. The chronicle of Heimesbach in the Hunsrück reveals many fragments and contradictions from the last 90 years of German history: Displaced and disenfranchised Jewish families, Nazi profiteers who claim to have been nothing more than innocent bystanders. But also—much later—the Sharifi and Karimpour families, who fled Iran to find in Heimesbach exactly what the name promises. Shida Bazyar’s debut novel, *It’s Quiet at Night in Tehran*, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize; her second novel, *Three Comrades*, has just been adapted for the screen and will be released in theaters in November.*The Gaps* is her third novel, and it promises to be epic. Together with *Salon* host Mariel Reichard, Shida Bazyar takes a small town and makes it big, testing its foundations for stability, resilience, and—the crucial gaps.