Writing in Exile: Interview with Fouad Samier Yazji

Syria is an overall Sunni-Muslim country. There, Fouad Samier Yazji was born into a family of orthodox Christians in 1959 – and decided to become an atheist at 20 years old. Ever since then, he has been interested in religion. Having studied education and successfully participated in chess-championships first, Yazji later began writing. In his texts he dealt with the Arabic enlightenment, questioning God and Allah.

The author had to flee and ended up in exile. In Kairo he lived for 2.5 years, working as an English teacher. But that just wasn´t it for him. Desperate, Yazji wrote an email to the German Goethe-Institute. He already had a special connection to Germany: Friedrich Nietzsche has always inspired him – to that extent, that he had even written a novel about the philosopher. “The Blue Volga” is about a painter whose life completely changes through Nietzsche’s work.