The German List

Reinhard Jirgl writes about the expulsions from Sudetenland and the impact this had not only on the people directly concerned, but also on subsequent generations. The author follows the path taken by different generations of women from one family. Having fled the small town of Chomutov in 1945, they are trying to cope with the grief of losing their ancestral home and are unable to fully accept their new surroundings in East Germany. A distinctive feature of the novel is the experimental orthography and punctuation, the style of the spoken word, and collage techniques.