Excerpt from Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

One sleeps on the sofa of an insurance agent.

One is given temporary quarters in an apartment share, sleeping in the room of a student who's spending half a semester in Cambridge.

One is staying in the apartment of a theater director who's touring abroad.


Various people when asked to help say: We keep hearing that these men are completely traumatized. How do we know they won't trash our apartment?

They say: Even if we help them, the problem still won't be solved.

They say: If we take them in, we won't be doing them any favors since there are so many Nazis in the neighborhood.

And also: Even if we let them sleep here, what will they live on?

Say: We could help out if it were just for a short period of time, but it doesn't look as if things will be getting better any time soon. They say: One person could possibly stay here, but is that even worth it? There are so many of them.The Berliners as a whole, represented by the Minister of the Interior, say what they said two years ago when the men first came to Germany from Italy to live in tents on Oranienplatz. They repeat what they said half a year ago when the men dissolved the camp: What's the point of having a law like Dublin II to determine jurisdiction if we don't abide by it? They say, we're allowed to invoke section 23 at our discretion, but since we have the choice whether or not to do so, we choose not to.

Excerpted from Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck. Copyright © 2017 by Jenny Erpenbeck. Excerpted by permission of New Directions. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.