Gerhard Friedrich, Utopia: the island and the country. The Kruso novel by Lutz Seiler

The most prestigious German award for the best novel of the year (Der deutsche Buchpreis), which is given every year during the book fair in Frankfurt, was conferred in 2014 to Lutz Seiler (born in Gera, Turingia, formerly DDR, in 1963) for his novel Kruso. So far author of lyric poems and short stories, known to a small circle of readers, thanks to this first prize Seiler suddenly comes to prominence of the general public and draws the attention of the critics. This book must have hit a crucial point of the German mood: 25 years after reunification, it examines the disappearance of DDR as traumatic experience. In my opinion the merit of this novel – and the main reason for its great success – lies in the ability of connecting the German political-cultural-psychological scenario, still torn and jagged, in the grief and respect of the defeated and losers from everywhere.

In fact the author manages to honor the memory of those who have died while escaping from the eastern state, however without fomenting hate against the ‘regime’ – but rather saving its utopian ‘core’. A vital legacy given with this text by Seiler to the western “winner”.