The young German author Christopher Kloeble is on a three-week residency supported by the German Book Office (GBO) at Nrityagram, close to Bangalore. Kloeble participated in several literary events in India recently. He talks to GBO about his stay in India.

GBO: You were amongst the Swiss author Urs Widmer and the German writer Ilija Trojanow at the Long Night of Literature in New Delhi. How was the event from your point of view?

CK: I think it was the first time I ever saw such a large poster of myself! Seriously, I very much enjoyed the evening because I not only learned a lot about recent German-speaking literature, but also on how many people in Delhi are interested in it and want to know more about it. I hope that events like the Long Night of Literature will keep happening and that next time I may sit in the audience.

GBO:  You have recently been to the Literature festivals in Jaipur and Hyderabad. How did you find these festivals in comparison to German Literature festivals such as the lit. COLOGNE or the Harbour Front Festival in Hamburg?

CK: The festivals in India just made me wish we had places like Jaipur or Hyderabad in Germany. I have never witnessed such crowds of dedicated and curious people at readings. I was very impressed with the lively, passionate debates.

GBO: You are in Bangalore at the moment for the Sangam House international writer's residency program that brings together writers from across the world. How it is so far and what have you learned for your own writing?

CK: Sangam House is a very lovely place with a lot of open space for letting your thoughts run free and for writing without distraction. It’s difficult to say what I'm learning for my own writing here, since writing is something I try not to overthink. But I can say that spending time with people from all over the world who share the same calling makes me – as cheesy as that may sound – feel very at home on this planet.

GBO: Your third novel “Almost everything very fast” will appear in March this year. Tell us more about the book!

CK: The novel tells the story of nineteen-year-old Albert from Königsdorf, who has always had to be a father to his father Fred, who has the mind of a child. Fred reads encyclopedias, counts green cars and carefully guards his most beloved possessions, among them a chunk of what looks like real gold. Albert grew up in the orphanage of Saint Helena. When Albert finds out that Fred only has five months to live, he returns home with the mission to find out who is mother is. The two embark on a fairy-tale-like quest which begins in the local sewage system and eventually leads them deep into the past.

I am very excited about this story, particularly because I started writing it ten years ago. Fred and Albert accompanied me for quite a big part of my life and I am happy that they have finally found a home in this book.

GBO: What’s coming next? Do you have any plans for coming back soon to India?

CK: I do! First I’m going to return to Germany for the book launch of my new novel and after that I’m going to spend 2 ½ months in New York City for a residency from NYU and the Deutscher Literaturfonds. But in November I’ll be back in India. And my instinct tells me that I’m going to return many, many more times in the future.