Winterberg's Last Journey follows its two main characters on an eclectic, tragicomic train journey through Central Europe - 'the beautiful landscape of battlefields, cemeteries and ruins'. When Czech nurse Jan Kraus is charged with the care of 99-year-old Wenzel Winterberg, a Sudetenland German expelled from his Bohemian homeland after the Second World War, he believes that their time together is limited. But a casual remark from Kraus one night - 'it's interesting; your name is Winterberg, and I came from Winterberg, from Vimperk in Bohemia, which used to be called Winterberg' - sparks a new life in the old man, who becomes obsessed with uncovering the fate of his lost love, Lenka Morgenstern. Kraus is then dragged along by Winterberg on a winding train journey from Berlin to Sarajevo, all the while dealing with Winterberg's regular 'historical fits'. Their only guide is Winterberg's Baedeker for Austria-Hungary from 1913 - the last edition ever issued.
ALOIS NEBEL 
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