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This book has been criticised as Wolf's attempt to show that she too was a victim rather than a beneficiary of the old East German SED regime. There are stories that she was an informer. I don't know - may be true. After all I was reported on by two friends there who still remain good friends today.

Anyway, it remains a powerful and at times terrifyingly depressing book. As difficult to read as many of her others with her innovative and inventive use of the German language, but somehow darker as the confused but ultimately positive character we saw in earlier novels is now being targeted and accused and persecuted.

The motivation for writing the book may always be a matter of contention but the book itself is a masterpiece.