Kein Ort. Nirgends

First edition (publ. Luchterhand)

Kein Ort. Nirgends is a 1979 novel by East German author Christa Wolf. It tells the fictional meeting of the German poets Heinrich von Kleist and Karoline von Günderrode in a salon in Winkel in the Rheingau. In real life, both protagonists had independently committed suicide; Günderrode in 1806 in Winkel, Kleist in 1811 in Berlin.

Kleist and Günderrode escape the empty talk of a tea party by taking a longer walk. Here the two encounter each other in a long conversation, and feel the proximity of their respective personal and poetic problems. Their deep exchange is interrupted abruptly when Kleist is called as his coach is leaving.[1]

This novel was translated into English by Jan van Huerck as No Place on Earth (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982).

References

  1. ^ "Wolf, Christa. Kein Ort. Nirgends, Wissen.de (in German)