Sommer vierundvierzig

The destruction of Königsberg and the final phase of World War II in northern East Prussia are the focus of Arno Surminski's new novel. In August 1944, young soldier Hermann Kallweit is on leave in the eastern province, which has so far been little affected by the war. The people of Königsberg are visiting the Samland coast and the fishing villages of the Curonian Spit, just as they do every summer. Only in the Memel region and the Elk Lowlands can one occasionally hear the rumble of cannons from Lithuania. The migratory birds are still resting at the Rossitten bird observatory, but from the east, other, unfamiliar flocks are approaching. "You have always arrived too late for the most beautiful things in life" – this saying no longer applies when Hermann meets Magdalena on the beach at Rossitten. The two have four days together in this "last summer." In hot August 1994, a travel group, including the seventy-year-old, embarks on a journey.