Opening of the Fabula Festival of World Literatures: Sharon Dodua Otoo

Fabula's opening event at Cankarjev dom will feature British writer, journalist and activist Sharon Dodua Otoo, whose work explores complex issues of identity, race, gender and historical memory. She is the 2016 winner of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize – one of the most prestigious awards for German language literature. Her debut novel, Adas Raum (Ada's Room), has captivated worldwide readers and critics alike with its innovative structure and universal themes.

Ada's Room, a kaleidoscopic novel spanning generations and continents, reveals the connections between four women all named Ada and all fighting for survival. Stricken with grief, a young woman in 1459 Ghana named Ada confronts colonial violence. A woman in Victorian England named Ada Lovelace is a mathematical genius and predecessor of computer programming. A woman named Ada, imprisoned in a camp brothel at Buchenwald in 1945, will survive one more day. As their interwoven narratives converge on a modern-day Ada, a young Ghanian woman who finds herself pregnant, alone, in Berlin, searching for a home before her baby arrives, their shared spirit will find a way to help her break the vicious cycle of injustice. Otoo's literary innovation includes non-human narrators – the voices of objects such as a broom, a hook and a concentration camp room, providing a unique perspective on historical events and the protagonists’ inner worlds. Otoo's non-linear structure blends historical accuracy, poetic language and surreal elements, imparting the novel with a particular depth and power.

The talk will be hosted by Aleksandra Gačić, excerpts from Ada's Room will be interpreted by actress Ana Penca Pavlin.

The event will be held in English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.

Ada's Room, translated into Slovenian by Sara Virk, confronts the reader with universal themes of injustice, oppression and resistance, while inviting reflection on how, in the course of time, women's personal stories impact the collective history of humanity.

The event is supported by Goethe-Institut Ljubljana.