Michael Goering

Fabian travels to Dresden for the first time in 1975. He stayed with friends of his parents. The student from Cologne wants to see if life in the “East Zone” is really as bad as his father always claims. Fabian quickly makes friends with his peers in Saxony and falls head over heels in love with Anne. This confusion of feelings is quickly caught up with everyday life in divided Germany, and when Fabian travels to Dresden again a year later, Anne is married and has given birth to their son Leo.
What could have become a great love affair despite the Iron Curtain develops into a deep friendship over the years. Fabian comes almost every year, seeks Anne’s closeness, witnesses how her brother Kai wants to swim through the Elbe to the West and fails. While Kai, in his hatred of the GDR regime, withdraws from the family
his father Ekki remains convinced that the GDR is capable of reform. On October 1, 1989, Kai is on the train from Prague to Hof, and Fabian meets Anne in East Berlin.
Michael Göring writes a declaration of love to a Dresden family and tells of the decisive years from 1975 to 1989. A moving family story in which even the visitor to the West finds a few things in disarray.

Michael Göring is head of the ZEIT Foundation and teaches at the Academy of Music and Theater in Hamburg. After several specialized books, Michael Göring published the novel “Der Seiltänzer” in 2011, the novel “Vor der Wand” in September 2013, the novel “Spiegelberg” in February 2016, the novel “Hotel Dellbrück” in September 2018. On February 11, 2021, “Dresden. Novel of a Family” was published.