The sun, so radiant and black

"It's not important / whether you fall / because you will / again and again. The only thing that matters / is what happens / after you fall." The verse novel DIE SONNE, SO STRAHLEND UND SCHWARZ, which was nominated for the 2023 German Youth Literature Prize, is a coming-of-age story full of depth and emotion: Nova has been completely fascinated by Akoua ever since they first met. Her thoughts only revolve around this girl, who lights up Nova's world with her radiance. She experiences the beginning of an exciting time full of first times and a new beginning that leaves no room for bitter memories. Nova is happy and hardly thinks about what her mother, her little half-brother and she have experienced. But then the unimaginable happens and the pain returns... Chantal-Fleur Sandjon uses hauntingly condensed language to tell the story of Nova's upbringing as a queer, black woman in Germany, of the violence she is repeatedly exposed to and her courage to look forward despite everything. In the tradition of spoken word, Chantal-Fleur Sandjon finds impressive words for pressing contemporary issues. Poetic and political, light and loud. And above all: luminous in every verse.