East German author Erik Neutsch has passed away; see, for example, the (German) mention in Die Zeit.
His big claim to lasting fame is Spur der Steine -- which, if you had to assign half a dozen novels in an introduction-to-the-literature-of-the-GDR course, would be a shoe-in. Deservedly so, too, though Neutsch doesn't fit neatly with the more regime-critical authors that would dominate any such course. It doesn't appear to have been translated into English, but you can get the DVD of Frank Beyer's very good film adaptation (hey, it stars Manfred Krug, so that's already a pretty solid foundation); get your copy at Amazon.com or see the IMDb page.
The only Neutsch-in-English I've come across -- after a very cursory look -- is a few pages in The German Library collection, The New Sufferings of Young W. and Other Stories from the German Democratic Republic -- but, hey, you should read the Plenzdorf-novella that gives the collection its title anyway (arguably one of the two or three most significant works of fiction published in the GDR), so why not get a copy ? Get yours at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
His big claim to lasting fame is Spur der Steine -- which, if you had to assign half a dozen novels in an introduction-to-the-literature-of-the-GDR course, would be a shoe-in. Deservedly so, too, though Neutsch doesn't fit neatly with the more regime-critical authors that would dominate any such course. It doesn't appear to have been translated into English, but you can get the DVD of Frank Beyer's very good film adaptation (hey, it stars Manfred Krug, so that's already a pretty solid foundation); get your copy at Amazon.com or see the IMDb page.
The only Neutsch-in-English I've come across -- after a very cursory look -- is a few pages in The German Library collection, The New Sufferings of Young W. and Other Stories from the German Democratic Republic -- but, hey, you should read the Plenzdorf-novella that gives the collection its title anyway (arguably one of the two or three most significant works of fiction published in the GDR), so why not get a copy ? Get yours at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
