Dinner with Hanya Yanagihara and friends yields insightful discussion at the FvF Apartment - Friends of Friends / Freunde von Freunden (FvF)

Dinner with Hanya Yanagihara and friends yields insightful discussion at the FvF Apartment

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Dinner with Hanya Yanagihara and friends yields insightful discussion at the FvF Apartment

There is nothing small about American novelist Hanya Yanagihara’s ‘A Little Life’, from its scale to its size (it’s more than 700 pages long) to its crushing subject matter. An epic story that weaves the narrative of the friendship of four men in modern-day Manhattan with a complex and dark fairytale of suffering that defines and literally cripples one of the characters, it’s a book that has been described as an emotional thriller. Yanagihara wrote it with the intention to lure readers into the story as if her words were like quicksand. For me, it was a book so harrowing that I had to put down for a few days before I could start reading it again.

On her first evening in Berlin, Yanagihara swung by the Freunde von Freunden Apartment in Mitte for an intimate dinner party in her honor. Sophie and Xenia von Oswald, the two sisters behind the Rocket & Basil and the cultish pop-up The Brunch series, were in the kitchen preparing a three-course vegetarian meal inspired by their Iranian, German and Australian roots. About a dozen guests—the creator of TV series Deutschland 83, Anna Winger, Israeli artist Deville Cohen, American curator Stephanie Behr, Malin Elmlid, founder of The Bread Exchange, and French illustrator Eric Giriat—sipped sparkling rosé until the first course was served: dumplings stuffed with fresh leeks floating in a rich Azerbaijani broth.

“The major topic of conversation was whether, as an artist, it was better to live in Berlin or New York. The consensus, after much discussion, was Berlin, especially now that Trump is in charge.”

The conversation swung from mention of the gruesome Shockheaded Peter tales to Hanya’s observations from her German book tour. (She found Germans to be exceptionally quiet and respectful during readings and Stuttgart was more attractive than she expected). The main course was a small roasted head of cauliflower served with a tomato and dill sauce, saffron tahdig and homemade labneh, which tasted best when all the flavors were mixed together; the major topic of conversation was whether, as an artist, it was better to live in Berlin or New York. (The consensus, after much discussion, was Berlin, especially now that Trump is in charge).

By the time dessert arrived, a spiced-orange polenta-cake, heady with cardamom and served with vanilla cream, it was almost midnight and the guests had changed seats and broken off into smaller groups. Malin was giving Hanya tips about Helsinki and Eric signed a copy of his beautiful children’s book La Tête perdue de M.Mue. Now that the Freunde von Freunden headquarters has moved to Kreuzberg, we made the giddy decision that the original Apartment should become an artist’s residence so that Hanya, who lives as a magazine editor in Manhattan, could move to Berlin indefinitely. Just a few weeks later though our plans were foiled when she was named editor-in-chief of The New York Times T Magazine; she won’t be leaving New York City any time soon.

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