A model childhood

This is a courageous book that breaks taboos and, as we have come to expect from Christa Wolf, it is infused with an integrity and a deep moral concern that raise it far above the narrow and self-conscious partisanship of much GDR literature. It speaks equally to East and West Germany - itself a daring accomplishment for an East German author - but also, with its atmospheric depiction of a fateful era and its patent and compelling truthfulness, to wider audiences beyond.