In conversation with writer and philosopher Senthuran Varatharajah, Villa Aurora writer-in-residence Karosh Taha presents her third novel and reads passages from the work-in-progress.

Taha is currently working on a novel that tells of the doppelganger theory of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. One can speak of a myth, a political conspiracy theory, an urban legend, or targeted propaganda, but in the reality of the novel there is the doppelganger and his wife.

To live up to the original, the doppelganger has to give up his own self - but when the copy is so convincing that even the secret service cannot distinguish between the two men, the question arises how people are supposed to maintain their individuality when the most powerful man in the country is reduced to a mere effigy by the regime he himself has created.

On a formal level, the novel challenges the construct of the narrative by working with different styles and voices and by offering an intertextual examination of intelligence documents and religious texts.

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Karosh Taha was born in the Kurdish city of Zaxo. She lives and writes in Cologne and Paris. Taha studied English and history at the University of Duisburg-Essen and, in addition to her work as an author, initially worked as a high school teacher. She has received numerous prizes and scholarships for her works. Her latest publication is available in English.

Senthuran Varatharajah, born in 1984 in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, studied philosophy, Protestant theology, and comparative religious and cultural studies in Marburg, Berlin, and London. In 2016, his debut novel "Vor der Zunahme der Zeichen" ("Before the Increase of Signs") was published by S. Fischer Verlag and received multiple awards. In 2022, his also highly acclaimed novel "Rot (Hunger)" ("Red (Hunger)") followed, published by the same publisher. As writer-in-residence 2017, Senthuran Varatharajah is a Villa Aurora alumn. He lives in Berlin.