Christa Wolf

Christa Wolf was arguably the best-known and most influential writer in the former East Germany. Having grown up during the Nazi regime, she and her family were forced to flee their home like many others, nearly starving to death in the process. Her earliest novels were controversial because they contained veiled criticisms of the Communist regime which landed her on government watch lists. Her past continued to permeate her work and her life, as she said, “You can only fight sorrow when you look it in the eye.” August is Christa Wolf’s last piece of fiction, written in a single sitting as an anniversary gift to her husband. In it, she revisits her stay at a tuberculosis hospital in the winter of 1946, a real life event that was the inspiration for the closing scenes of her 1976 novel Patterns of Childhood. This time, however, her fictional perspective is very different. The story unfolds through the eyes of August, a young patient who has lost both his parents to the war. He adores an older girl, Lilo, a rebellious teenager who controls the wards. Sixty years later, August reflects on his life and the things that she taught him. Written in taut, affectionate prose, August offers a new entry into Christa Wolf’s work and, incidentally, her first and only male protagonist. More than a literary artifact, this new novel is a perfectly constructed story of a quiet life well lived. For both August and Christa Wolf, the past never dies.

Nachdenken über Christa T. begründete den Weltruhm Christa Wolfs und gehört zu den wichtigsten Werken der deutschsprachigen Nachkriegsliteratur. Mit nur 36 Jahren stirbt Christa T. an Leukämie. Ihre ehemalige Schulkameradin und Studienfreundin erinnert sich an sie: an eine Frau, die der Forderung nach Anpassung ihre Phantasie, ihr Gewissen und vor allem ihre Sehnsucht nach Selbstverwirklichung entgegensetzt.

When "The Quest for Christa T. was first published in East Germany ten years ago, there was an immediate storm: bookshops in East Berlin were given instructions to sell it only to well-known customers professionally involved in literary matters; at the annual meeting of East German Writers Conference, Mrs Wolf's new book was condemmed. Yet the novel has nothing eplicity to do with politics.

Jag fick en chock när jag insåg att kvinnor under de senaste 2000 åren inte utövat något politiskt inflytande. Vår kultur hämtar sina rötter ur den antika, och liksom den är den byggd på ett hierarkiskt system som utesluter kvinnan från makt och inflytande. Kulturen skapade en jakt efter materiella värden och skapade ett samhälle som blev alltmer tomt och meningslöst. Jag tror att vår drift till självförstörelse hämtar sina rötter ur detta. I Kassandra, som är den sjätte titeln i Lind & Co:s klassikerserie Palmserien, utgår Christa Wolf från myten om det trojanska kriget för att berätta om kvinnans roll i historien. Kassandra var sierskan som förutsade Trojas fall. Ingen trodde henne och när hon envisades fängslades hon. Christa Wolfs bok är uppdelad i två delar, den första är en episk berättelse om Kassandra, den andra är en kommenterande del som bygger på föredrag som Christa Wolf höll på universitetet i Frankfurt.CHRISTA WOLF (1929 2011) är en av de viktigaste tyska efterkrigsförfattarna. Från 1962, då hon slog igenom med romanen Der geteilte Himmel som handlar om Tysklands delning, var hon verksam som författare i DDR. Efter murens fall framkom att hon varit inofficiell medarbetare åt Stasi mellan 1959 och 1962. Wolf blev även själv övervakad av Stasi 1969 1989. I sina senare böcker skildrar hon tiden i DDR och efter murens fall. Lind & Co har tidigare givit ut Landet som icke är.

A fragmentary work that stands as a testament to Wolf's skill as a thinker, storyteller, and memorializer of humanity’s greatest struggles. Christa Wolf tried for years to find a way to write about her childhood in Nazi Germany. In her 1976 book Patterns of Childhood, she explained why it was so difficult: “Gradually, over a period of months, the dilemma has emerged: to remain speechless or to live in the third person, these seem to be the options. One is impossible, the other sinister.” During 1971 and 1972 she made thirty-three attempts to start the novel, abandoning each manuscript only pages in. Eulogy for the Living, written over the course of four weeks, is the longest of those fragments. In its pages, Wolf recalls with crystalline precision the everyday details of her life as a middle-class grocer’s daughter, and the struggles within the family—struggles common to most families, but exacerbated by the rise of Nazism. And as Nazism fell, the Wolfs fled west, trying to stay ahead of the rampaging Red Army.

Christa Wolf (1929 2011) var en av de viktigaste tyska efterkrigsförfattarna. Från 1962, då hon slog igenom med romanen Der geteilte Himmel som handlar om Tysklands delning, var hon verksam som författare i DDR. Efter murens fall framkom att hon varit inofficiell medarbetare åt Stasi mellan 1959 och 1962. Wolf blev även själv övervakad av Stasi 1969 1989. I sina senare böcker skildrar hon tiden i DDR och efter murens fall. Lind & Co återutger nu Wolfs Landet som icke är (1979) som en av de två första titlarna i ny klassikerserie med kvinnliga författare.Landet som icke är skildrar ett fiktivt möte mellan två tyska diktare som båda skrev med livet som insats. En sommardag 1804 träffas 26-åriga Heinrich von Kleist, som innan han sju år senare tar sitt liv hinner skriva några av den tyska litteraturens viktigaste verk, och den något yngre Karolina von Günderrode, som just givit ut sin första diktsamling och två år senare frivilligt avslutar sitt liv. De båda unga författarna samtalar om dikten som både en självförverkligande och självförgörande kraft.

During a 1960 interview, East German writer Christa Wolf was asked a curious question: would she describe in detail what she did on September 27th? Fascinated by considering the significance of a single day over many years, Wolf began keeping a detailed diary of September 27th, a practice which she carried on for more than fifty years until her death in 2011. The first volume of these notes covered 1960 through 2000 was published to great acclaim more than a decade ago. Now translator Katy Derbyshire is bringing the September 27th collection up to date with One Day a Year—a collection of Wolf’s notes from the last decade of her life. The book is both a personal record and a unique document of our times. With her characteristic precision and transparency, Wolf examines the interplay of the private, subjective, and major contemporary historical events. She writes about Germany after 9/11, about her work on her last great book City of Angels, and also about her exhausting confrontation with old age. One Day a Year is a compelling and personal glimpse into the life of one of the world’s greatest writers.

Christa Wolf tried for years to find a way to write about her childhood in Nazi Germany. In her 1976 book Patterns of Childhood, she explained why it was so difficult: "Gradually, over a period of months, the dilemma has emerged: to remain speechless or to live in the third person, these seem to be the options. One is impossible, the other sinister." During 1971 and 1972 she made thirty-three attempts to start the novel, abandoning each manuscript only pages in. Eulogy for the Living, written over the course of four weeks, is the longest of those fragments. In its pages, Wolf recalls with crystalline precision the everyday details of her life as a middle-class grocer's daughter, and the struggles within the family--struggles common to most families, but exacerbated by the rise of Nazism. And as Nazism fell, the Wolfs fled west, trying to stay ahead of the rampaging Red Army. Though Wolf abandoned this account, it stands, in fragmentary form, as a testament to her skill as a thinker, storyteller, and memorializer of humanity's greatest struggles.

During a 1960 interview, East German writer Christa Wolf was asked a curious question: would she describe in detail what she did on September 27th? Fascinated by considering the significance of a single day over many years, Wolf began keeping a detailed diary of September 27th, a practice which she carried on for more than fifty years until her death in 2011. The first volume of these notes covered 1960 through 2000 was published to great acclaim more than a decade ago. Now translator Katy Derbyshire is bringing the September 27th collection up to date with One Day a Year a collection of Wolf's notes from the last decade of her life. The book is both a personal record and a unique document of our times. With her characteristic precision and transparency, Wolf examines the interplay of the private, subjective, and major contemporary historical events. She writes about Germany after 9/11, about her work on her last great book City of Angels, and also about her exhausting confrontation with old age. One Day a Year is a compelling and personal glimpse into the life of one of the world's greatest writers.