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Esam Abou-El Magd
Esam Abou-El Magd stands in the dune grass on the Baltic coast at blue hour, looking out to sea; a small moon hangs in the sky.

Author · Fehmarn Island

Esam Abou-El Magd

A novel and flash fiction – written on the island of Fehmarn. Most recently published: the novel Das Ende der Träume ist aller Anfang.

Cover of “Das Ende der Träume ist aller Anfang”: a man stands on a curving keyboard that leads into a large yellow moon against a night-blue sky.

Most recently published

Das Ende der Träume ist aller Anfang

An impressionistic fairy tale

A young jazz pianist with a new instrument in the boot of his car, on a direct route towards his music – and towards exactly the right place for himself. That, at least, is how Binjamin imagines his journey south after his musical surroundings have dissolved into thin air. He has no idea that this journey into a southern country will confront him with his own open identity and hold more than one point of pain. Nor that the surrender of a great love is waiting for him, and the lethargy of a winter sleep.

296 pages · paperback · Königshausen & Neumann · Januar 2026

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ISBN 978-3-8260-9584-9
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Flash Fiction

Very short stories for an impatient age

Many days seem too short to give yourself over completely to reading a novel. Or to writing one. For those moments, and in that mood, very short stories come into being – known as flash fiction or sudden fiction. Unlike a novel, at roughly 600 to 1,300 words they are intense narratives you can take in at a glance. A selection of around thirty of them is planned for publication.

More about flash fiction

Rausch

Heidelberg in December. A student has been waiting weeks for a reply from the university, until one Friday evening the pull of a basement pub draws him out of his room.

approx. 6 min1,294 wordsHeidelberg, Studium, Kennenlernen

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Der allergrößte Erfolg

A cat with too short a tail, a manor house full of housemates and a window unreachably high above the vine. A story about tics, belonging and the courage to climb anyway.

approx. 3 min656 wordsKatze, Gemeinschaft, Selbstüberwindung

Read online

About the author

Born in Hamburg, at home on the Baltic coast

Esam Abou-El Magd was born in Hamburg, grew up on the Baltic coast and lives on the island of Fehmarn. Alongside his literary work he is a non-fiction editor and travel journalist. His first novel, “Das Ende der Träume ist aller Anfang”, was published in 2026 with support from the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.

Read the biography

This is the English section of the site. The complete site, including readings and news, is available in German.

Esam Abou-El Magd sits smiling on wooden steps by the beach, a book in his hand, in warm evening light.