German Writer Thomas Brussig with Jonathan Franzen

Thomas Brussig’s classic German novel, The Short End of the Sonnenallee, now appearing for the first time in English, is a moving and miraculously comic story of life in East Berlin before the fall of the Wall. Translator and author Jonathan Franzen, who also provides the foreword for this book, says that it’s “a reminder that, even when the public realm becomes a nightmare, people can still privately manage to preserve their humanity, and be silly, and forgive.
Tickets are $10 for Mechanics’ Institute Members & cosponsors, $15 for the public.