The Defector

Monika Maron, the great German writer still today at the forefront of her creative generation, saw her country East Germany disappear in civil unrest, departures and finally the fall of the Berlin Wall. Maron in this novel looks inside Rosalind Polkowski, her semi-autobiographical heroine, exploring the freedom to be found within, despite the claustrophobic and threatening atmosphere of East German society contained by the Wall. Deeply psychological and always engaging, Monika Maron is an important European feminist voice, giving us an intimate view of a key moment in modern German history.