Emine Sevgi Ozdamar was born in Malatya, Turkey in 1946. She came to Germany for the first time when she was 18 years old. In 1976, she began working at the Volksbuhne in East Berlin. She has lived and worked as a writer and actress since 1986 and resides in Berlin.

For Ozdamar, literature also means life and language is not only a vehicle, but also a substantial part of her personality. At some point, she began writing in German because her mother tongue, Turkish, had lost its innocence during the military dictatorship. "The words had fallen ill," she once described it. Bertolt Brecht's language became her saviour. In the book, the 18-year-old who heads off to Germany at the end of the novel ends up living out her dream.

Just like the author herself. In Berlin, she began working as a director's assistant at the Volksbuhne theatre. Celebrating a successful career as a storyteller, actress and theatre director, she has also been a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature since 2007. Her first novel, "Life is a Caravanserai", has also made it onto the list of "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die".