Russians at the Gates
Journal: New England review
Year: 2016

Russians at the Gates Durs Grünbein (bio) Translated by Karen Leeder (bio) For the most part they were unobtrusive, almost invisible—our occupying power. Their day-to-day life carried on behind closed doors, as if someone were trying to shield them from us, or maybe us from them. They lived a hidden life in the barracks, behind the crooked fences and walls that were made impenetrable by skeins of barbed wire, like a hedge of rose thorns. But anyway, who would have dared try to climb over, who wo