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Stories about the German author Feridun Zaimoglu often begin with a description of what he looks like - namely, not much like a German author. They focus on his silver necklaces and bracelets, and the rings that clinkagainst the sides of cups when he drinks coffee. The descriptions include his peaked eyebrows, and the dark, curly hair and sloping nose that reveal his Turkish heritage.
To some he looks like one of the sketchy, burnt-out characters of his novels. To others, "like a sought- after bouncer," as Spiegel Online wrote recently.
"Man, look at me. What should people think?" said Zaimoglu, steadily smoking menthols in a café shortly before giving a reading in Berlin. "Of course I look different. I don't have this earnestness. I don't look like a man you can trust."
That's not to say that Zaimoglu regrets the way he looks, or has made many attempts to change it much.The son of parents belonging to the "guest worker" generation that helped fuel the German postwar economic miracle, Zaimoglu's style, both on the page and off it, has helped propel him from college dropout to the heights of Germany's literary establishment.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/27/news/author.php
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