BOOK

Here you can already have a taste of Anna Fleischhauer´s upcoming book.

All images © Anna Fleischhauer

PLOT

My narrative deals with the human being; Our paradoxes in nature, our values and ideologies, our desire for power and control, influence, myths and legends, heroes and animosities, and the urge for recognition in the group.

The central theme of my story is the question of identity.
What does identity mean, how important is it for us, when does it guide us to error, illusions, and destruction, and when is it constructively helpful to us?
In my book, I go through different times of our human history and show how the identity represents variably and how this was influenced and instrumentalized.

To build a better reflection on the question of identity, I analyze the Republic of Kosovo and its Albanian population in the central part of my book.
I chose Kosovo as the primary example because, to this day, it is an unknown terrain for many people and many prejudices and misapprehensions prevail over the republic and its inhabitants. Also, the question of identity is in crisis for Kosovo's population.

PAST

My narrative goes back far into the past, to the time when the dinosaurs still inhabited this earth and the first homo sapiens populated the earth.

After I make in my story a time jump in the early 16th century, in the time that shaped my identity to the present day. My story goes from there to the present. I will show how for centuries humanity varied with its ideologies and the idea of the individual and the group. Then I describe myself, the author who takes the reader on this journey after the question of his own identity. In my story, I am also searching for the question of what makes up one's own identity. At the same time, I am confronted with a culture that has till then been foreign to me and observe my development of the observed and my reflection about it.

For that, I go out for a few years from my usual environment to Kosovo.

STYLE

My narrations are made up of many illustrations and comics, which also represent difficult and complicated themes in a friendly and easy way for a simple understanding. On this form, the content will be accessible, intuitive and entertaining for the reader.
We are more than 80% of our five senses purely visual. Hence information can also be better understood and maintained in this way.

The subjects which I have chosen for my book can thus be quickly internalized through the visual presentation.
The graphic representations I will make as own scenes out from my memory and imagination or original transmissions depending on the topic. To clarify certain emotional moments better, I will create countless individual comics.

KOSOVO

How is Kosovo and its predominantly Albanian population perceived from the outside and how from its perspective?
My experiences and impressions with the central question of identity and rejection with the comparison to the past with its development are the focus of my narrative.

RESEARCH

For my research, I use in the historical part different sources of knowledge.
For my family background, I interviewed family members and compared their statements with historical sources. For the research on Kosovo, I read through various sources of knowledge, make interviews on site and observe the events with my reflections through my stay in Kosovo.

The protection of the privacy of the persons that will occur in my book is essential to me in my research, so specific critical, emotional, or personal events are alienated by me so that the focus is on the fact itself instead to the acting person.

PUBLICATION

The book will be released as a first appearance in the German language. After that, the book should be published in the English language. Other languages could follow.
I have translated the illustrations presented here into the English language for the understanding of a broader group of interest.

The book will also be released as an e-book in the future.

WORK PERIOD

I assume that I need another two years to do my research in Kosovo. In time, I try to gain a better understanding of Kosovo, its population, history, connections, and development.
Moreover, the production of the book could last about 1-2 years.

Below are a few examples of the illustrations from my upcoming book.

early humanity