Author Talk: A Refugee's Dictionary

Meet author Alen Causevic and immerse yourself in his powerful and poetic novel A Refugee's Dictionary, where a family's flight from Yugoslavia and the aftermath of war unfold through the lens of language.

The novel follows a son who discovers his father's old dictionary from language school—filled with marked words and personal notes about being a foreigner in Denmark. Through these small fragments, a profound silence between father and son created by war is revealed, raising critical questions about identity, belonging, and one's native tongue.

Alen Causevic was born in Bosnia and fled to Denmark as a child. He studied literary history and published the novel The Real Life in Life in 2021, which explores life in an asylum center. This evening, he will share his thoughts and read from his new book, which in fine poetic fashion illuminates how flight and war leave deep marks on an entire family chronicle.