City of Angels

“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.” —Sarah Gerard, Three Percent

“[Wolf's] quest for personal integrity within a flawed system, and the honesty of her prose, cannot help but impress.” —The Economist

“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.” —Joshua Hammer, The New York Times

“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, City of Angels is a fine valedictory.” —Kevin Nolan, The Rumpus

“Explaining without accusing, City of Angels is a profound book, even a heroic one.” —Todd Gitlin, The New Republic

“Searls's excellent translation effectively conveys Wolf's wordplay.” —The New Yorker

“Defying superlatives and superbly translated . . . In her final novel, Wolf . . . outdid herself.” —Booklist (starred review)

“ . . . 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.” —Publishers' Weekly

“[A] fascinating book.” —Kirkus Reviews

“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.” —Mary Gordon, The New York Times Book Review