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.

In Los Angeles, Karosh Taha will work 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 merely reduced to an effigy by the self-created regime. 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.

Selected Publications
2020 | Im Bauch der Königin (novel), DuMont
2018 | Beschreibung einer Krabbenwanderung (novel), DuMont

Selected Prizes and Awards
2021 | Alfred Döblin Medal of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz
2019 | German Literature Fund Scholarship
2019 | Rolf-Dieter Brinkmann Scholarship of the City of Cologne
2019 | Hohenems Literature Prize