The Village on the Edge of the World

A remarkably candid and discomfiting interview with the Nobel Prize laureate, reflecting on a literary life defined by the brutality of Ceaucescu's regime.

A vivid reflection on life and literature

Certain to be brilliant

A profound delight. In this seemingly casual tour inside the mind of one of the century's great writers there are frequent, electrifying moments of immense insight - each one feels like a trapdoor opening into a reality you realise you were, till now, just skimming the surface of. Müller's thinking is glorious to share in, and her thoughts have never been more relevant

Müller is an unnervingly acute observer and the account here of the nightmarish texture of persecution is equal in its intensity to any in fiction... The Village on the Edge of the World is an autobiographical work of rare and unsettling honesty, an extraordinary and uncompromising telling of an extraordinary and uncompromising life

Superb... Müller articulates well the pain and anxiety she suffered as an enemy of the state. It's heartening to learn how she regained her strength and found ways, however small, to stand up to the Securitate

Herta Müller was born on 17 August 1953 in Banat, Romania. In 1987, she emigrated to Germany and has lived in Berlin ever since. She is the author of The Land of Green Plums, The Appointment, The Hunger Angel and The Fox Was Ever the Hunter, among other works. She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009. Kate McNaughton is a documentary film maker, author and translator, working from the French, German and Italian. Her debut novel, How I Lose You, was published in 2018.