The 1960s and 1970s were a period of destabilization in German literature. Notions of sociopolitical relevance eroded the position of the traditional genres in favor of activist, experimental forms. Even established writers were driven off course by the prevailing ideological winds, and artistically motivated prose fiction experienced some lean years. Peter Härtling was one of the few authors who resisted this trend. During those two decades he published a series of novels of the highest aesthetic quality, which through their thematic interrelation constitute a coherent oeuvre.

As is the case with all German writers of his generation, Härtling's biography is dominated by the early experience of Nazism, World War II, and the postwar years of material deprivation. He was born in 1933 in Chemnitz (now Karl-Marx-Stadt in the German Democratic Republic) to Rudolf and Erika Häntzschel Härtling. In 1941 the family moved...