Şeyda Kurt "Zeit der Monster" x Harbour Front Literaturfestival Hamburg

In these times, already weighed down by so many problems, do we need an apocalyptic novel like Şeyda Kurt’s *Time of Monsters*? Definitely yes! Because Şeyda Kurt doesn’t see the apocalypse as purely negative; she also understands the term in its original meaning as “revelation.”

The story is set in a neighborhood—wild and battered, but not abandoned. More and more people are coming to believe in an apocalypse, fueled by a prophecy circulating online. Sanya roams through this neighborhood—young, restless, with a pistol in her backpack. She is not alone. Surrounding her are the people of the neighborhood, where family and kindred spirits intertwine.

Şeyda Kurt makes it clear for whom she wrote this novel: “For everyone who feels that we must remain human in the midst of chaos. And, of course, for everyone who loves grand, magnificent, and also funny stories!”

Journalist, playwright, and acclaimed essayist Şeyda Kurt has written about love and hate. She calls her first novel, *Zeit der Monster* (*Time of Monsters*), a “thermometer with which I measure the feverish dream called reality.”

Şeyda Kurt, born in 1992 and raised in Cologne-Kalk, is a writer, journalist, curator, and host. She has worked for Zeit Online and Deutschlandfunk Kultur, among others, and contributed to the podcast “190220 – Ein Jahr nach Hanau,” which won the Grimme Online Award. Her books *Radikale Zärtlichkeit – Warum Liebe politisch ist.* and *Hass. Von der Macht eines widerständigen Gefühls* became bestsellers.