Mama Oděsa – Biller Maxim (2025)

A multilayered story centered around the young writer Miša captures the tumultuous fate of a Jewish family that moved from Odessa to Hamburg in the 1970s. The novel skillfully intertwines various time planes: Odessa during World War II, including the massacre of Odessa's Jews in 1941, the late Stalinist period, emigration to Germany, and the narrator's present, in which his mother's longing for her homeland is particularly reflected. This opens up the possibility for readers not only to learn about the family history but also to follow a hidden intimate confession about the relationship between mother and son. Memories of the past intersect with the mother's stories, in which she reflects on her childhood. Thus, the book also tells about literature itself, about its ability to preserve and transform the past. The very title of the novel refers to a traditional Ukrainian-Jewish song, popular especially in émigré circles.

About the author:

Maxim Biller (1960) is a German writer and journalist with Russian-Jewish roots. He was born in Prague, and when he was ten years old, he emigrated with his parents and sister to West Germany, where he now lives in Berlin. Biller often criticizes anti-Semitism and addresses issues concerning Jews in his prose works and...