One Day a Year

In 1960, East German writer Christa Wolf received a phone call from a Moscow newspaper asking if she would describe her experiences on a single day, September 27, "as precisely as possible." She was intrigued by the request and has continued recording her thoughts and feelings on that day ever since. This book collects forty of these intimate essays, written between 1960 and 2000. Wolf, one of the most important authors of the twentieth century, writes about the demands and rewards of being a wife and mother and contemplates national and global events during the course of that one day a year.