{"product_id":"9780374534295","title":"City of Angels : or, The Overcoat of Dr. Freud \/ A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eCity of Angels\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Christa Wolf\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe stunning final novel from East Germany's most acclaimed writer\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThree years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the writer Christa Wolf was granted access to her newly declassified Stasi files. Known for her defiance and outspokenness, Wolf was not especially surprised to discover forty-two volumes of documents produced by the East German secret police. But what was surprising was a thin green folder whose contents told an unfamiliar—and disturbing—story: in the early 1960s, Wolf herself had been an informant for the Communist government. And yet, thirty years on, she had absolutely no recollection of it.\u003cbr\u003e     Wolf's extraordinary autobiographical final novel is an account of what it was like to reckon with such a shocking discovery. Based on the year she spent in Los Angeles after these explosive revelations, \u003ci\u003eCity of Angels\u003c\/i\u003e is at once a powerful examination of memory and a surprisingly funny and touching exploration of L.A., a city strikingly different from any Wolf had ever visited.\u003cbr\u003e     Even as she reflects on the burdens of twentieth-century history, Wolf describes the pleasures of driving a Geo Metro down Wilshire Boulevard and watching episodes of \u003ci\u003eStar Trek \u003c\/i\u003elate at night. Rich with philosophical insights, personal revelations, and vivid descriptions of a diverse city and its citizens, \u003ci\u003eCity of Angels\u003c\/i\u003e is a profoundly humane and disarmingly honest novel—and a powerful conclusion to a remarkable career in letters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Wolf's ability to create layers of meaning in a peripatetic structure across three, sometimes four, different time periods is astounding . . . Damion Searls has done a knockout job here. The prose is lovely but invisible in the reading, which is exactly what it should be.” —\u003ci\u003eSarah Gerard, Three Percent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Wolf's] quest for personal integrity within a flawed system, and the honesty of her prose, cannot help but impress.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Engrossing . . . the book aptly captures Wolf's tortured state of mind at a critical juncture -- the moment she is forced to ponder her complicity, albeit largely harmless, with a criminal regime and the collapse of everything she once believed in.” —\u003ci\u003eJoshua Hammer, The New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A moving melancholic remembrance by writer who--one final time--attempts to make sense of an historical and personal past, for herself and for her readers . . . In Searls's professional hands, \u003ci\u003eCity of Angels\u003c\/i\u003e is a fine valedictory.” —\u003ci\u003eKevin Nolan, The Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Explaining without accusing, \u003ci\u003eCity of Angels \u003c\/i\u003eis a profound book, even a heroic one.” —\u003ci\u003eTodd Gitlin, The New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Searls's excellent translation effectively conveys Wolf's wordplay.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Defying superlatives and superbly translated . . . In her final novel, Wolf . . . outdid herself.” —\u003ci\u003eBooklist (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“ . . . there's an odd fascination in watching Wolf navigate depression, guilt, anger, and Los Angeles . . . It's worth it to see Wolf grappling with a past that, far from being dead, is live -- like ammunition.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers' Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] fascinating book.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Finishing [Christa Wolf's books], the reader is covered by a sense of completeness, of having been taken on a journey in the company of a seer who has stared, with attention, mercy, and courage, into the world's heart.” —\u003ci\u003eMary Gordon, The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374534295\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40623952167118,"sku":"9780374534295","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_29620ecf-8c53-46ce-bb47-a188cf618715.jpg?v=1638583154","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374534295","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}