»You Have to Walk against the Wind«

This volume brings together Thomas Brasch’s published and unpublished fictional and essayistic prose (stories, speeches, criticism, commentary, opinion pieces) from 1956 to 2000 – with the exception of the novel material published as Child Killer Brunke. From his first publication in the Lausitzer Rundscahau (in 1956, when Brasch was just 11), the fairytale Fox, Eagle and Hippo, to the short story collection The Sons Die before the Fathers – which would have only been able to appear with Hinstorff Verlag with drastic editorial interference, and became the catalyst for Brasch’s »change of country«, from East to West Berlin – through to the late texts dedicated to figures like Heiner Müller, this volume spans more than 40 years of production. »The plaintive glance at the past is no replacement for the refusal of the future”, writes Brasch in Rhymes Radiate beside Murder (1979).

The collection is divided into the published prose and the prose from his literary remains. These are followed by facsimiles of pages from manuscripts, a brief editorial afterword and extensive annotations featuring bibliographic references and notes on different versions, background information about the origins of the texts, or explanations of their relations between them, along with a biography of the author.