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.
