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"Navid Kermani - author, journalist and academic - is one of the most prominent public intellectuals in Germany today. Kermani has been at the forefront of recent debates about Islam and its role in Germany's political, social and cultural life. Instead of emphasizing the differences between ethnic affiliations and religious beliefs, Kermani questions the Western notion of a clear dividing line between Islam, Christianity and Judaism, highlighting instead their affinities. In addition to his political essays, Kermani's travel journalism introduces western audiences to diverse Muslim societies in the world and his fiction provides accessible meditations on first love, contemporary music, death and friendship. This is the first volume of criticism in English dedicated to Kermani's varied work. The book features an extensive interview with the author, a reproduction in German and English of Kermani's famous 2014 Bundestag speech and a collection of critical essays on Kermani's writing. The essays, by major scholars in the field, cover issues such as gender, religion, cosmopolitanism, mystical experiences, and the power of the liberal arts in a time of neoliberal distraction."-- Navid Kermani: biographical chronology -- Preface -- Navid Kermani was zählt, ist das gesprochene Wort/What matters is the spoken word / Helga Druxes and Karolin Machtans -- "Ich weiss nicht, ob ich deutscher bin, aber ein deutscher Schriftsteller bin ich halt"/ "I don't know whether I am a German, but I am a German writer": Interview with Navid Kermani -- Part I: Literary antecedents. Johannes Kleine: Navid Kermani as an innovative poet -- Esther Schiesser: Navid Kermani and Jean Paul -- Part II: God and the nature of (divine) love. Klaus von Stosch: Fascinosum et tremendum: Navid Kermani's engagement with God's beauty and terror -- Karolin Machtans: The beauty and terror of love: grosse Liebe and Du sollst -- Part III: Mystical experience/ecstasy. Torsten Hoffmann: Losing to find: aesthetic experience in Navid Kermani's Das Buch der von Neil Young getöteten -- Jens Hobus: "Down by the river": interrelations between Islamic mysticism, music and love in Navid Kermani's work -- Part IV: Current debates: multiculture, patriotism, Muslim integration, neoliberalism. David Coury: Navid Kermani: patriotism, culture and postnational identity -- Helga Druxes: The crisis of (re)productivity in Dein Name -- Elke Segelcke: Navid Kermani's Ausnahmezustand: Reisen in eine beunruhigte Welt: travelogues as ethnography and beyond
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