Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
They Divided the Sky : A Novel by Christa Wolf - Christa Wolf

They Divided the Sky

A Novel by Christa Wolf

By: Christa Wolf, Luise von Flotow (Translator)

Paperback | 26 January 2013

At a Glance

Paperback


$20.85

or 4 interest-free payments of $5.21 with

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

First published in 1963, in East Germany, Christa Wolf's They Divided the Sky is one of the top 100 Must-Reads (Deutsche Welle) tells the story of a young couple, living in the new, socialist, East Germany, whose relationship is tested to the extreme not only because of the political positions they gradually develop but, very concretely, by the Berlin Wall, which went up on August 13, 1961.

The story is set in 1960 and 1961, a moment of high political cold war tension between the East Bloc and the West, a time when many thousands of people were leaving the young German Democratic Republic (the GDR) every day in order to seek better lives in West Germany, or escape the political ideology of the new country that promoted the "farmer and peasant" state over a state run by intellectuals or capitalists. The construction of the Wall put an end to this hemorrhaging of human capital, but separated families, friends, and lovers, for thirty years.

The conflicts of the time permeate the relations between characters in the book at every level, and strongly affect the relationships that Rita, the protagonist, has not only with colleagues at work and at the teacher's college she attends, but also with her partner Manfred (an intellectual and academic) and his family. They also lead to an accident/attempted suicide that send her to hospital in a coma, and that provide the backdrop for the flashbacks that make up the narrative.

Wolf's first full-length novel, published when she was thirty-five years old, was both a great literary success and a political scandal. Accused of having a 'decadent' attitude with regard to the new socialist Germany and deliberately misrepresenting the workers who are the foundation of this new state, Wolf survived a wave of political and other attacks after its publication. She went on to create a screenplay from the novel and participate in making the film version. More importantly, she went on to become the best-known East German writer of her generation, a writer who established an international reputation and never stopped working toward improving the socialist reality of the GDR.

Industry Reviews

Christa Wolf has created a moving love story, but also a compelling portrayal of East Germany in the early 60s through detailed description of people and landscapes. Her characterisation demonstrates the complexity of human behaviour within the strictures of Communist society at that time, and her talent for storytelling makes the human impact so vividly moving.

-Mandy Wight, Peak Reads

More in Anthologies (non-poetry)

Rejection - Tony Tulathimutte

Paperback

RRP $22.99

$19.75

14%
OFF
Best of Australian Poems 2025 : Best of Australian Poems - Nam Le
Jane Austen for Every Day of the Year - Tara Richardson

RRP $34.99

$34.75

The Best Australian Racing Stories : From Archer to Makybe Diva - Jim Haynes
Collins Classics - The Republic : Collins Classics - Plato
Ninshubar : The Sumerians trilogy - Emily H. Wilson

RRP $21.99

$19.75

10%
OFF
Light the Lanterns

RRP $32.99

$32.95

Complete Poems Of Banjo Paterson - A. B. Paterson

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
The Complete Tales of H.P. Lovecraft : Timeless Classics - H. P. Lovecraft
Irish Fairy Tales and Folklore - W. B. Yeats

RRP $24.99

$22.75

Meditations : The Philosophy Classic - Marcus Aurelius

RRP $24.95

$21.75

13%
OFF
The Iliad : Penguin Classics - Homer

RRP $17.99

$16.75

The Epic of Gilgamesh : Penguin Classics - Andrew George

RRP $26.99

$20.75

23%
OFF
The Peace of Wild Things : And Other Poems - Wendell Berry

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF