Book Launch I Tickets here.

We bring voices from all over the world to our community, and we're just as committed to the stories being written right here in Berlin. So we're delighted to begin our first collaboration with Wirklichkeit Books by celebrating Edwin Nasr's debut novel, Fear Eats Ali.

Ali is a self-denigrating Catholic and unruly homosexual who left southern Lebanon for Berlin almost a decade ago, and who now stands accused of assaulting a police officer at a Palestine solidarity demonstration. Through the dense fog of his days come the people who make up his life: Francesco, an Italian ex-boyfriend afflicted with the malady of hope; Samira, his tenacious confidante, who carries the burdens of her Syrian community; and, far away, his father Karim, who took up arms with the communists against the Israeli occupation in the 1980s. Carried by tragic humour and political reckoning, this is a forthright novel about the time and place of resistance, the debt it leaves behind, and the helplessness of men in the face of immense historical change.

Edwin will be in conversation with Chapters founder Sharmaine Lovegrove about migration, sexuality and belonging, and about how questions of identity connect us to the political landscape in Berlin and Germany today.

About Edwin Nasr: Edwin Nasr was born in 1994 in Haret Sakher, Lebanon, and lives and works in Berlin. His writing on politics and contemporary art has appeared in Bidoun, n+1, Afterall Journal, The Funambulist, Mousse Magazine and Mada Masr. He is Senior Editor of Palestine is everywhere (TBA21, Silver Press and the87press, 2025) and translates from French into English.

About Wirklichkeit Books: Founded in Berlin in 2019, Wirklichkeit Books ("we're-clish-kite") publishes books that look for words, images and actions for a new actuality, placing artists and writers side by side with historic positions on poetry, play, language and art. For them, publishing is an experimental and joyful act.