Navid Kermani

On Living and Dying with the Music

For the twelfth time now, the Harbour Front Literature Festival entices the biggest stars of the scene to Hamburg. Since it was opened, the Elbphilharmonie has become established as the fixed venue for the festival. This year, Harbour Front and the Elbphilharmonie intensify their cooperation with »Harbour Front Sounds«: from 11 to 15 September, the festival within a festival focuses on the rapport between literature and music. The festival is opened by writer Navid Kermani, himself a passionate music lover. He has already described the effect of music and its magic in his first literary publication, »Buch der von Neil Young Getöteten« (Book of Those Killed by Neil Young). At the opening event of this year’s festival, Kermani, who was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2015, returns to the subject of Neil Young and reads about living and dying with music, including excerpts from texts of his own, some of them unpublished.