Silent Close No. 6

In this extraordinary, prizewinning novel, Monika Maron says farewell to the East Germany where she grew up as the stepchild of an élite communist official not unlike retired Professor Beerenbaum, who hires disaffected writer Rosalind Polkowski to transcribe his memoirs. Shortly after the Berlin Wall, which Maron loathed, fell and her country disappeared, she returned home to write this subtle yet scathing look at herself living among the thinkers, drinkers, and elderly believers who kept the communist state going to the very end. Part argument with her father and cry of pain across the grave, part exploration of her own role and guilt as a follower in the GDR's sad funeral procession, Silent Close No. 6 has lost none of its depth of feeling, its power or its honesty. With her sharp feminist vision, Monika Maron spares neither foolish lovers, nor dilettantes, nor the upholders of state power - and certainly not herself. Here is essential reading to understand the Germany of yesterday, and also that of today. "Icy prose." NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW "Maron writes with wit, economy and stylistic assurance." THE VILLAGE VOICE "One of the best writers of her generation." LE MONDE