August

by Christa Wolf

Mottenburg nennen die Patienten ihre Lungenheilstätte, in der alle an derselben Krankheit leiden, alle die »Motten« haben. Einer von ihnen ist der achtjährige August, der seine Mutter auf der Flucht aus Ostpreußen verloren hat und selbst verloren wäre, gäbe es da nicht Lilo. Lilo ist siebzehn, sie ist schön, sie wagt es, sich mit der Oberschwester anzulegen, und wenn Lilo seinen Namen ausspricht, klingt er anders als sonst. Mehr als sechzig Jahre danach sind die Erinnerungen an diese Zeit immer noch präsent, kann August darin wie in einem Bilderbuch blättern. 1976 erschien Kindheitsmuster, Christa Wolfs großes autobiographisches Buch. Fünfunddreißig Jahre später rückt sie eine Figur daraus in den Mittelpunkt ihrer neuen Erzählung: Wir begegnen dem Jungen August wieder, lesen von einer schwierigen Kindheit im Zeichen von Krieg und Krankheit, aber auch von einem erfüllten Leben, in dem es etwas gegeben hat, das man wohl Glück nennen könnte

Genres: Fiction, German Literature, Short Stories, Classics, Germany, Literature

38 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2012

About the author

Novelist, short-story writer, essayist, critic, journalist, and film dramatist Christa Wolf was a citizen of East Germany and a committed socialist, and managed to keep a critical distance from the communist regime. Her best-known novels included “Der geteilte Himmel” (“Divided Heaven,” 1963), addressing the divisions of Germany, and “Kassandra” (“Cassandra,” 1983), which depicted the Trojan War.

She won awards in East Germany and West Germany for her work, including the Thomas Mann Prize in 2010. The jury praised her life’s work for “critically questioning the hopes and errors of her time, and portraying them with deep moral seriousness and narrative power.”

Christa Ihlenfeld was born March 18, 1929, in Landsberg an der Warthe, a part of Germany that is now in Poland. She moved to East Germany in 1945 and joined the Socialist Unity Party in 1949. She studied German literature in Jena and Leipzig and became a publisher and editor.

In 1951, she married Gerhard Wolf, an essayist. They had two children. Christa Wolf died in December 2011.

(Bloomberg News)

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story is Christa Wolf's swan song, a gift to her husband Gerd in July 2011, a couple of months before she died.

And it is powerful, wolfish writing, moving between fiction and autobiography, between long past history and contemporary time seemingly effortlessly, displaying the giant puzzle that was Christa Wolf's German life.

The narrator, August, is an elderly man in Berlin who remembers the traumatic time when he flees as a 10-year-old child during the last months of the Second World War, and ends up as an orphan in a tuberculosis hospital. He meets a young woman there who is an alter ego of Christa Wolf at the time, and his thoughts mirror her transition from a childhood under Hitler's spell to a no man's land of complete loss.

It is a touching testimony to the generation that grew up to face the annihilation of their worldview at the most vulnerable point in their development, and who then had to make choices based on that experience of disorientation.

The title story is accompanied by two matching stories describing the reality of the transition from Nazi Germany to communist East Germany from the perspective of a young, confused person struggling to rearrange identity to fit new political and social conditions.

Recommended either as an entry point to Christa Wolf's work or as a complement to her great novels - it is vintage Wolf!

[Alwynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

”What can I give you, my dear, if not a few pages of writing, into which a lot of memory has flowed from the time before we knew each other. I can hardly tell you anything about the later times that you don’t already know. That’s the thing – we’ve grown together over the years, I can hardly say ‘I’ – usually ‘we’. Without you I’d be a different person. But you know that too. We’re not ones for great statements. Only this much – I have been lucky.”

C, 28 July 2011

– Christa Wolf’s dedication presented as a preface to August

In 50 short pages Christa Wolf’s novella conveys the essence of a life. Her central character, August, is the kind of person who all too frequently goes unnoticed. A widower in his 60s, he works as a tour-bus driver, and the story’s structured around his return journey from Prague to Berlin with a coachload of passengers. As August drives his mind’s flooded with memories, images from his past and his present overlapping and intertwined. In his thoughts, he returns to when he was eight years old at the end of WW2 and he was one of a mass of German refugees flooding into what became East Germany. Separated from his mother and father, August is placed in an institution set up for Tuberculosis patients. It’s an old mansion, freezing cold, poorly equipped, there’s only a skeleton staff to deal with an overflow of sick and dying patients. There are barely enough rations to keep its inhabitants from starving. But it’s in this unlikely place that August has his first experience of what it means to love, through his close ties to another patient, teenage Lilo who takes it on herself to support the younger children in the surrounding wards. His recollections of Lilo are interspersed with scenes from his marriage to Trude, peaceful but significant, a marriage in which much was left unspoken.

Christa Wolf’s quietly powerful, atmospheric piece draws on her own experiences as a teenager in 1946. It’s beautifully constructed, everything’s just right, the sense of place and time, the character of August, the central themes around relationships, as well as how we process and come to terms with our individual and collective past, concerns that run through much of Wolf’s work. I thought this was excellent, supremely controlled, admirably lucid and deeply affecting - made more so by its publishing history, written for, and dedicated to Wolf’s husband not long before her own death.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich bin noch ganz bezaubert von dieser wunderbaren Erzählung. Unwissend, dass es ihr letztes Werk sein wird hat Christa Wolf mit ihm den Kreis geschlossen zu ihrem biographischen Roman Kindheitsmuster. Die darin erwähnte Figur des Flüchtlingskindes August ergreift nun das Wort - im Übrigen der einzige Text Christa Wolfs mit einem männlichen Erzähler.

August ist verwitweter Busfahrer und auf seiner letzten Fahrt vor der Rente. Dabei wandern seine Gedanken zurück in die Kindheit. Auf dem Flüchtlingstrek aus Ostpreußen hatte er seine Mutter verloren und kam lungenkrank in ein Sanatorium in einem ehemaligen Schloss, das von den Bewohnern die "Mottenburg" genannt wird. Dort kümmert sich die nur leicht erkrankte 17jährige Lilo liebevoll um die kleineren Kinder. Sie ist eine Insel der Menschlichkeit und Zuneigung in der von Tod, Krankheit und existenziellem Mangel gekennzeichneten Nachkriegszeit. Lilo ergibt sich nicht in Lamoyanz, sondern stemmt sich gegen das Schicksal: Herr Grigoleit sagte: "Was der Herr liebt, das nimmt er zu sich." Da fuhr die Lilo ihn an, der Herr sei kein Räuber.

Rückblickend versteht August, dass es Lilos Aufmerksamkeit und Zuneigung sowie seine kindliche Liebe zu ihr waren, die ihn die Schrecken und Traumata des Krieges und der Krankheit überwinden ließen. Deshalb versenkt er sich gerne in diese Erinnerungen. Ihm fällt auf, dass er in diesen alten Geschichten blättern kann, wie in einem Bilderbuch.

Ich habe diese Lesung von Dagmar Manzel aus dem Radio mitgeschnitten. Als Zugabe ist dort noch eine Interview mit Christ Wolfs Ehemann Gerhard zu hören, dem sie die Erzählung zu ihrem 60. Hochzeitstag gewidmet hat:

Was soll ich Dir schenken, mein Lieber, als ein paar beschrieben Blätter. Blätter, in die viel Erinnerung eingeflossen ist aus der Zeit, als wir uns noch nicht kannten. Aus der späteren Zeit kann ich Dir kaum etwas erzählen, dass Du noch nicht weißt. Das ist es ja. Wir sind in den Jahrzehnten ineinander gewachsen. Ich kann kaum noch ICH sagen, meistens WIR. Ohne Dich wäre ich ein anderer Mensch. Und das weißt Du ja. Große Worte sind zwischen uns nicht üblich. Nur soviel: Ich habe Glück gehabt. Christa, 28. Juli 2011

Neben dieser Widmung erzählt gibt Gerhard Wolf Einblicke in die Entstehungsgeschichte dieser Erzählung. Darin erfahren wir, dass Lilo - ähnlich wie Nelly in Kindheitsmuster - ein alter ego der Autorin ist, und dass August tatsächlich existierte und seine rührenden Kinderbriefe an Christa Wolf noch heute existieren. Für Interessierte anbei ein Link zum dem Interview.

"August" bestätigt, welch großen (positiven und negativen) Einfluss die Taten Erwachsener auf Kinderseelen haben. Das ist es, was mir diesen Text so nahe bringt. Neben der Erzählung selbst sind es die liebenden Worte, die Christa und Gerhard Wolf auch nach 60 Jahren füreinander finden, die dieses Hörstück zu einem Erlebnis gemacht habe, bei dem mir - auch wenn es schmalzig klingt - das Herz aufging. Dies kulminiert in dem Rilke-Gedicht, das Gerhard 2010 anlässlich einer Feier im Freundeskreis für Christa vortrug.

Lösch mir die Augen aus: ich kann dich sehn,
wirf mir die Ohren zu: ich kann dich hören,
und ohne Füße kann ich zu dir gehn,
und ohne Mund noch kann ich dich beschwören.
Brich mir die Arme ab, ich fasse dich
mit meinem Herzen wie mit einer Hand,
halt mir das Herz zu, und mein Hirn wird schlagen,
und wirfst du in mein Hirn den Brand,
so werd ich dich auf meinem Blute tragen.

[Nemanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Šta da ti poklonim, dragi moj, ako ne nekoliko ispisanih stranica u koje su se ulila sećanja iz vremena dok se još nismo poznavali. O vremenima posle jedva da mogu da ti ispričam nešto, što već ne znaš. To i jeste to: srasli smo tokom decenija. Jedva da mogu da kažem ‘ja’ – najčešće ‘mi’. Bez tebe bih bila druga osoba. Ali ti znaš i to. Velike reči nisu za nas. Samo ovoliko: bila sam srećna. K.“

Kada govorimo o nemačkoj književnosti, obično nam na um padaju autori poput Remarka, braća Grim, Getea, Mana, Deblina, Grasa, a nekako zaboravljamo da je ne tako davno, Nemačka bila podeljena na dve politička, kulturna, socijalna pola. Jedne u koju je "teklo med i mleko", gde su naši odlazili, radili, zaradili i potom se vraćali. I one druge, skoro pa za naše oko ne postojeće Deutsche Demokratische Republik, Istočne Nemačke.
Nakon podizanja zida koji će predstavljati simbol Hladnog rata mnogi Nemci su sa istoka bežali preko u slobodu koju je nudila Zapadne Nemačke. Jedna žena to ipak nije učinila, bila je to Krista Volf.

Autorka brojnih romana, od istorijskih drama ,,Medeje" preko ,,Kasandre", romana o Berlinskom Zidu ,,Podijeljeno nebo" do memoara "I djetinjstvo. Zar ne" čije su se dve priče pojavile u našem izdanju ove zbirke, Krista Volf je pisala o životu, stvarajući iza zida, ne razmišljajući da ga ostavi iza sebe, trudeći se da doprinese svom narodu, radeći i voleći ga bez obzira na razlike.

,,Avgust", delo posvećeno njenom suprugu, napisano skoro pa na smrtnoj postelji, poput labudove pesme, ,,Avgust" predstavlja njeno prvo i poslednje delo u kojem je glavni protagonista bio muškarac. Priča nas vodi u posleratne godine, kada je u jednom močvarnom okruženju unutar zamka podignuta plućna bolnica, u kojoj živi Avgust, siroče koje se vezuje za devojčicu Lilu, alijas za samu Kristu Volf, koju smatra prijateljicom, zamenom za majku pa čak i simbol platonske ljubavi. Tanana priča o ljubavi, smrti i rastanku, sublimira sećanja u nešto krajnje nevino i toplo. Kao dodatak imamo i dve priče nastale iz vizure same autorke, jedna koja nas vodi u poslednje dane rata kada Nemačka kapitulira i priču o osnivanju Jedinstvene socijalističke partije Nemačke, koja će skoro 44 godine upravljati Istočnom Nemačkom.

Mada je reč o kratkom proznom delu, svedenom na svega pedesetak stranica, proza Kriste Volf je još jedan primer koliko kratka proza može imati značaja.

4/5✨

[Come Musica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scrive Anita Raja (la traduttrice di Christa Wolf) nella prefazione: “L’August che dà il titolo a questo racconto di Christa Wolf, l’ultimo che ha scritto e che esce postumo, fa la sua prima, rapida apparizione nelle struggenti pagine finali di Trama d’infanzia, laddove si racconta del crollo del nazismo e, insieme, del sistema di valori e di certezze che avevano retto il mondo dell’adolescente Nelly Jordan e della sua famiglia."

Questo racconto è stato scritto nel 2011 ed è dedicato al marito Gerhard Wolf. Ed è per questo che August si può in qualche modo definire il canto del cigno di Christa Wolf.

Il narratore, August, è un anziano di Berlino che ricorda il periodo traumatico in cui, quando aveva dieci anni, fugge durante gli ultimi mesi della seconda guerra mondiale e finisce orfano in un ospedale, per essere curato dalla tubercolosi. Lì incontra una giovane donna, che in quel momento è l'alter ego di Christa Wolf: “E August sentì, e lo sente ancora oggi, che non sarebbe mai stato così vicino a Lilo come in quell’istante, e imparò che la tristezza e la felicità possono mescolarsi insieme.”

“L’ultima cosa che vide di lei fu il suo braccio che salutava dal finestrino sventolando la sciarpa azzurra che teneva sempre attorno al collo. E August pensò che nella sua vita non ci sarebbe mai più stata gioia. Infila la chiave nella porta. Non è bello tornare a casa in un appartamento vuoto. Ci si abitua, gli avevano detto quando Trude era morta. August non si è abituato. Ogni volta deve fare uno sforzo per aprire la porta, quando torna da uno dei suoi viaggi. Ogni volta ha paura del silenzio che lo accoglierà e che nessuna radio e nessun televisore può scacciare.”

“Si concede una piccola pausa. Continua a non saper formulare a parole ciò che prova. Prova una specie di gratitudine perché nella sua vita c’è stato qualcosa che, se riuscisse a esprimerlo, chiamerebbe felicità. Apre la porta ed entra.”


Non conoscevo questa scrittrice.
Ne ha parlato Anita Raja, la traduttrice, al #SalToEXTRA: una bella scoperta.

[Vishy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read a Christa Wolf novel for Christa Wolf week which is part of this year’s German Literature Month. I decided to get started with ‘August’ because it was easily available and not very long. (You can find more information on Christa Wolf week in Caroline’s post here.) This is also my first Katy Derbyshire translation and so I couldn’t wait to read it.

August is a driver of a tourist bus. He takes tourists to Prague, Dresden and back to Berlin. While driving the bus and while taking breaks while the tourists are out, he remembers his past – when he was a young boy after the war, and he had lost his parents (he doesn’t know whether they have died or they are missing) and he has consumption and so is housed in a manor house turned into a hospital with other children and grownups who are suffering from the same condition. There he meets Lilo, an older girl, whom he adores. He remembers the old time with Lilo and other children at the hospital, his friendship, his love, his jealousy, his happy times and sad. He also remembers a time from later in life when he has become a grownup, when he meets and marries Trude and the happy and contented married life they had. The book flits between these three time periods back and forth, while August is driving back the tourist bus from Prague to Berlin. The story ends with his reaching Berlin, leaving the bus, driving his car and reaching his own house.

I loved ‘August’. It is seventy four pages long and so can be probably called a novella. But even these seventy four pages are not really that – in all the pages, the text is printed only in the lower half. So it is really closer to thirty-seven pages – a long short story probably. The blurb says that Christa Wolf wrote it in one sitting as an anniversary gift to her husband. That might account for the shortness of it. Christa Wolf’s prose flows beautifully like a river throughout the book – it is beautiful but not demanding. I wondered whether all her books are like this and so I checked out another of her books ‘Cassandra’. The style there was very different – beautiful but demanding prose. I found that interesting. I loved the way the story of ‘August’ was told – during a bus trip with flashbacks. I loved the way Wolf describes August’s flashbacks –



He realizes he can flick through these old stories like through a picture book, nothing forgotten, no pictures faded. Whenever he wants, he can see it all in his mind’s eye – the inside of the castle, the broad curved staircase, every single room, the way the beds were arranged on the ward where Lilo was.



‘August’ has beautiful passages, happy and sad moments and a nice story told in beautiful prose. I can’t wait to read more Christa Wolf.

Here are some of my favourite passages from the book.



August keeps his cool. He never gets impatient. You have the patience of an angel, Trude used to tell him. He never loses his temper. His workmates appreciate that. Sometimes, he knows, they think he’s a bit boring. Come on, say something for a change, they used to nudge him in the beginning when they sat together in their lunch break. But what did he have to say? He had no reason to complain about his wife. No separation to report on. No arguments with his children to moan about. They didn’t have any children. It had simply turned out that way. There’d been no need to talk to Trude about it first. They wanted for nothing. And when Trude died two years ago he certainly couldn’t talk to anyone about it.

It’s not good coming home to an empty flat. You get used to it, they’d said when Trude died. August hasn’t got used to it. Every time it’s an effort, opening the front door when he comes back from work. Every time he’s afraid of the silence that will envelop him, something no radio and no television can dispel.



Have you read Christa Wolf’s ‘August’? What do you think about it?

[Lana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars only because I wish there were more of this.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

U delu mi je najbolji bio pogovor, koji je zaokružio knjigu i objasnio priče. Tema mi je bila daleka i strana. Priča je ispričana iz ugla dece ili mladih u Nemačkoj tokom drugog svetskog rata, što nije pogled sa kojim sam se susretala do sada, ali jeste interesantan pogled.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, Christa Wolf, wrote this 74 page book in a single sitting as an anniversary gift to her husband. It is a beautiful, heartwarming story that shows us that even in the most extreme and unfortunate circumstances love and kindness can make everything tolerable. August and his mother were forced from their home in East Prussia at the end of World War II and as these refugees were traveling by train to escape the atrocities of war, an accident takes August’s mother. As an orphan August is placed in a hospital, which is actually a former castle turned into a hospital that treats tubercular and consumptive patients.

August is surrounded by sickness and death and sorrow but what he remembers most about his time at the hospital is an older girl named Lilo. Lilo is a teenager, so she is a bit older than August, but her warmth and kindness are something that August constantly wants to be around. Her songs and stories make him forget, at least for a little while, that he is an orphan living in a hospital. No matter how sick or close to death another patient might be, Lilo still visits and tenderly cares for many of the children at the hospital.

August is now a sixty-year-old man looking back on his life and remembering his time in the hospital after the war. It is a testament to the resilency of the human spirit that August doesn’t remember all of the death and destruction around him, but what stands out in his mind is the compassion and generosity of Lilo. August has lived a full and happy life and he is able to look back on it with a warm feeling in his heart and no regrets. August is also very thankful for the wonderful life he has shared with his wife and for his job of driving tourists back and forth from Prague to Dresden. He is a simple man and is so grateful for what might seem to many as insignificant memories.

Written in beautiful, concise prose, Wolf is the perfect example of the fact that even a very short novella can have a powerful and far reaching impact on readers.

[World Literature Today]

"Dedicated to her husband on their anniversary, Christa Wolf’s final story tenderly relays the uplifting power of memory in the face of impending death and sorrow. A story within a story, the narrative’s circular nature demonstrates that our connections with others transcend our own mortality." - Andrea Bryant, University of Oklahoma

This book was reviewed in the November 2014 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://bit.ly/12AjSPt

[Olivier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très beau petit texte de Christa Wolf, écrit peu avant sa mort, où elle se remémore la rencontre d'un jeune garçon dont elle aimait s'occuper lorsqu'elle était adolescente dans un sanatorium à la fin ou juste après la Deuxième Guerre. On sent à quel point cette rencontre et se rapport qu'elle a eu avec l'enfant l'a marquée, et la postface de son mari qui commente le texte publié après la mort de l'autrice nous en dit beaucoup, en très peu de mots, sur Wolf.

[Tonymess · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple life reimagined. With stark prose & a haunting contemplative style, the child August, is presented through his childhood in a sanitarium & at the end of his life.

With memories & experience presented bleakly, a simple honest life's highlights are enough for you to reimagine the joys and fears of an unheralded protagonist.

Wolf's only male protagonist is wonderfully sketched.

As always, stunningly presented by Seagull Books, the only downside is that it is very very short, maybe a couple of extra short stories could have been added to make it a collection.

[Đorđe Bajić · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kristu Volf nisam ranije čitao, „Avgust“ je moj prvi susret sa ovom znamenitom nemačkom književnicom. Nisam razočaran. Zapravo: oduševljen sam! „Avgust“ je noveleta od 30 strana koju je književnica napisala na samrtnoj postelji, 2011. godine, sećajući se detinjstva i dečaka Avgusta koga je upoznala neposredno posle rata, u zamku u kome su bila smeštena deca obolela od tuberkuloze.

Ovu noveletu je Krista Volf poklonila suprugu za šezdesetogodišnjicu braka, uz reči: „Šta da ti poklonim, dragi moj, ako ne nekoliko ispisanih stranica u koje su se ulila sećanja iz vremena dok se još nismo poznavali. O vremenima posle jedva da mogu da ti ispričam nešto, što već ne znaš. To i jeste to: srasli smo tokom decenija. Jedva da mogu da kažem ‘ja’ – najčešće ‘mi’. Bez tebe bih bila druga osoba. Ali ti znaš i to. Velike reči nisu za nas. Samo ovoliko: bila sam srećna. K.“

Samo ova divna posveta je dovoljna da knjiga dobije moju preporuku, mada tu je i sam kvalitet teksta koji je zaista izuzetan - „Avgust“ je tanan, iskren, emotivan, introspektivan, ispripovedan iz vizure dečaka (sada gospodina u godinama, vozača autobusa od 60 i nešto) koga je Krista (Lilo) upoznala pre mnogo decenija i koga se još uvek živo sećala (što joj je dalo za pravo da domašta ostatak njegovog život)... U pitanju je svojevrsni bildungsroman (mada ne sasvim) u kome se veoma uspešno prepliću prošlost i sadašnjost, a istovremeno i priča o jednom tihom postojanju, kao i biografska proza koja nam pomaže da upoznamo i bolje razumemo autorku, pa (možda) čak i stanje nemačke svesti tokom Drugog svetskog rata i posle. Sve to bez patetike i uz odličan prevod Bojane Denić.

Ako niste ranije čitali Volfovu, „Avgust“ je savršen za prvi susret, iako se, kao što sam već naglasio, radi o njenom poslednjem napisanom delu. U srpsko izdanje su uvrštene još dve kraće priče, koje, takođe, govore o detinjstvu Kriste Volf i životu u Nemačkoj tokom i nakon rata: „Razmena pogleda“ i „Jednog dana“. Sve to na 60 stranica. Kratko, ali veoma sadržajno i reprezentativno.

[Beatrix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wunderbar geschrieben. Jedes Wort, jeder Satz sitzt. Ich wollte nicht, dass diese Geschichte nach nur 38 Seiten aufhört - und doch wäre kein weiteres Wort notwendig gewesen.

Es ist ein leiser, ruhiger Text, genau wie das Leben des Protagonisten. Christa Wolf lässt August die Momente des Glücks in seinem Leben mit dieser Erzählung wieder erleben. Sie erzählt sowohl von seiner Kindheit in der Nachkriegszeit als auch parallel von seinem jetzigen Leben kurz vor der Rente am Beispiel eines Arbeitstages als Reisebusfahrer. Er führt ein einfaches Leben, das keine schlagzeilenwürdige Moment des Glücks braucht. Es sind Momente des kleinen Glückes, Alltagsglück.

Sie stehen vor einem Leben, das auch viel Leid gesehen hat, doch August lässt sich nicht allein dadurch definieren. Ja, die Jahre im Kinderheim waren schlimm, sie werden erwähnt und sicherlich niemals vergessen, doch weder August noch Christa Wolf wollen sie breit reden. Er hat Menschen verloren, doch er hat eben auch Wärme von ihm Nahestehenden erfahren dürfen.

Augusts Erinnerungen in Christa Wolfs Worten rufen auch viele meiner Erinnerungen wach. "Kartoffel stoppeln", das hab auch ich als Kind gemacht, aber seitdem niemanden mehr drüber reden hören. Auch meine Mutter hatte TB als Kind der Nachkriegszeit und ich erinnere mich an ihre Erzählungen.

Mit "August" hat Christa Wolf eine kleine Geschichte geschaffen, die sehr berührt und den Leser lange beschäftigen wird.

[Michael Moseley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little more than a short story but such a powerful one, full of haunting images of a life lived with little more than an existence but lived with such gratitude of having had a life at all. An unknown orphan did not have the loving experience of even a single parent could have been angry at their misfortune but Christa Wolf’s portrait showed little anger that we might expect. The bleakness of the life was chilling but inspirational at the same time. Postwar east Germany is a place that many of us modern Europeans can hardly contemplate but this was all within a lifetime. I cannot recommend this book enough in this modern turbulent times asa measure of what a bleak life was in our recent past.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, beautifully rendered tale of remembrance by a recent widower, August, of his seasons in a tuberculosis hospital as a child shortly after WWII and the teenage girl, Lilo, who protected and befriended him.

[Franziska · Rating 5 out of 5]

It made me thinking. I'm so glad that I never got to know war. She writes beautifully.

[Ligia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descobri a escritora alemã Christa Wolf porque a sua tradutora na Itália, Anita Raja, seria a Elena Ferrante. O outro livro que li dela, Riflessioni su Christa T., tem temáticas parecidas com as abordadas na tetralogia napolitana, como uma ligação profunda de amizade entre duas mulheres, as mudanças e dificuldades ao longo das fases da vida, sentimentos de inadequação e incompletude, o prenome da personagem que é o mesmo da escritora, sugerindo uma escrita autobiográfica etc.

Este livro, August, é um belíssimo conto (ou novela curta) em que o personagem do título relembra, já na velhice, sua infância no pós-guerra e, apesar dos horrores que passou, consegue, sem saber nomeá-los, ter sentimentos positivos em relação à sua vida.

É possível perceber que a Ferrante tem influências da Christa Wolf, mas cada uma tem um estilo muito particular e sensibilidades muito distintas. As prosas de cada uma me tocam muito, mas de formas completamente diversas.

[Margot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un racconto lungo che, in meno di settanta pagine, mostra la crescita interiore del protagonista August che dà il nome al libro. Davvero, davvero bello. La scrittura di Christa Wolf è immaginifica e, al contempo, concreta: riesce a portare un linguaggio sognatore nei ricordi di un uomo che, da bambino, fu ricoverato in un castello trasformato in ospedale alla fine della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Ciononostante, i guizzi onirici non danno l’idea di un mondo allegro in cui vivere e sono fortemente legati alla difficoltà emotiva di vivere la guerra. La tenerezza di questa storia, che pesca a piene mani dai modernisti di primo Novecento senza imitarne la prolissità, esplora la crescita e la nascita dell’identità di August: all’inizio del racconto è troppo piccolo per avere un carattere, mentre alla fine troviamo una persona che del bisogno di legami umani ha fatto il proprio tratto principale

[Erwin Maack · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Notas sobre um primeiro amor que nunca se disse)

Um homem simples, pacato.
Não lembra da guerra, nem da pátria — mas de Lilo.
Não houve beijo, nem confissão,
só a pergunta: “Sou seu amigo?”
— e a resposta, um sim,
que durou a vida inteira.

August não é um herói.
É um homem que segurou o desejo com tanto cuidado
que ele não quebrou — virou silêncio.

O corpo do livro é o de um enfermeiro,
mas sua alma é de quem nunca feriu.
Ele tocou mulheres sem tomar posse,
falou pouco e sentiu fundo.
Amou sem saber o nome do amor,
e por isso é sagrado —
um servidor de Cibele,
guardião daquilo que se perde
quando os homens tentam conquistar.

Do seu primeiro amor,
viveu a doçura da espera
e o amargor com ressaibo de lembrança.

Christa Wolf escreveu o contrário da conquista.
August é o livro de quem passou
sem deixar rastro —
exceto dentro de si mesmo.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm probably committing some heinous literary Fauxpas by reading Wolf's last novel first, but how the hell was I to know? Anyway, I liked this short little book. I read it in less than an hour. Wolf wrote it for her husband on their anniversary and it's a quiet little story of a young man in a post-war sanatorium falling in love with a girl and then old version of young guy remembering this while he's driving a tourist bus. Short and sweet, I totally dig, and look forward into reading more of Wolf's stuff if this is representative. I'm a big fan of Ostie authors, or whatever it's called, apologies, the German people.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dedication was the best part of this one, more emotional than the narrative too. The story was a snapshot of something acutely personal, but ultimately it feels like the praise heaped on it has more to do with Wolf's body of work - undeniably skilled - and her life story than anything in this brief text. Too short to fully engage with, though the writing is still of high quality.
Seriously, it's barely 30 pages in real font and spacing, even if the HC lists 74 pages. Probably nicely presented, I love books too!, but not so grand as to shell out so much to acquire, in my opinion.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the library without any real expectations. This was much more interesting than I could've imagined. I don't read general fiction and I certainly don't read a lot of German literature so this was a gateway into classics of German literature for me. I think this will stay with me, even if I forget about its details.

[Sara G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted so much more. The biggest flaw of this little book is that there are only three stories, that there's only that little bit of writing. I wanted to linger in Wolf's writing for longer, I wanted to get a better feel for it.

[Frankie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Niklas · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Und er lernte, daß Trauer und Glück miteinander vermischt sein können."

[niklas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 sterne hauptsächlich für die august erzählung und das nachwort von gerhard wolf

[sophia roven · Rating 3 out of 5]

maybe there’s something special here. too short to feel anything.

[Kitty-Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

No té 5 estrelles per la brevedat de la narració, per les ganes de més amb que m’he quedat, però per la resta és impecable.

[Lauren Strickland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little easy read and one of the last books written by Christa Wolf for her husband before her death. The story is about a widower called August, who is driving a coach from Prague back to Berlin. As he drives, we are transported back and forward through time with his memories. It starts with him having been admitted to a convalescent style home aged 8, having been orphaned during the war. His memories of his time there mainly centre around Lilo, an older girl with who he first realises what it is to love someone. We also see snippets of his marriage to Trude, who although he loved deeply it appears he never quite got over Lilo.
The story helps to remind me that it is our relationships with others that are important and what get us through life. I found one of the most emotional moments of the story was after Lilo's friend died and August sat with her to comfort her. He remembered that he had never felt as close to her as at that moment and he realised then that sometimes moments of great happiness are also moments of great sadness and pain. I think we all learn this sad truth as we go along but I think Christa Wolf tackles the themes of death, love and relationships with others in a fantastic way.