[Ohrfeige]
This novel centres on a single, explosive act of frustration: Karim Mensy, an Iraqi asylum seeker whose residency permit has just been revoked, ties his caseworker to a chair and slaps her. The narrative unfolds as a long, one-sided monologue delivered by Karim to his captive audience. It is a technical deconstruction of the “asylum machine,” in which Khider shifts the focus from the physical journey of migration to the psychological paralysis of the waiting room.
Karim describes the “language of the authorities” as a cold and impenetrable German, which determines his fate. Karim exposes the irony of a system that demands a perfectly linear, logical life story from people whose lives have been shattered by chaos. The novel examines the moment when the pressure of being a passive object of state administration finally gives way to a desperate assertion of human agency.
[Khider, A. (2016). Ohfreige. Carl Hanser Verlag.]
Sources:
https://www.new-books-in-german.com/recommendations/a-slap-in-the-face/
