Zapad

They have nothing left in the East: three years ago, Nelly's husband took his own life, or so she was told – she can't be sure, they didn't let her see the body. All she wants now is to leave, to forget, to start life anew. But in the 1970s, for Nelly Senff and thousands of others like her, the West doesn't begin behind the Wall – there is distrust, coldness and the Marienfelde reception center. And it is here, in Purgatory, between what was not Hell and what will not be Paradise, that the brilliant German writer Julia Franck finds her heroines and heroes, dismantles the compass of prejudice and, in search of humanity, reestablishes the sides of the world. The beautiful widow Nelly Senff, the Polish cellist Krystyna, the tortured actor Hans and John, the dark-skinned CIA agent, will meet and touch in the fenced perimeter of the West, and what will emerge from their touch is a poignant and powerful story of courage, parental love and humanity that survives or disappears under the blows of the heavy hammer of history.