The Forsaken (Die Verlassenen)
by Matthias Jügler

Published in March 2021 by Penguin Verlag. 176 pages long.

A dark, deadpan account of the long-term effects of the East German regime on its inhabitants, even today. One morning in 1986 in Halle, East Germany, a mother takes her five-year-old son to pre-school. They chat and make plans for the summer. The mother hugs the boy and watches as he goes off to the other children. They will never see each other again. The son will only find out how she died years later, when he finds a letter from Norway that changes everything...