Summer of Dead Dreams


Summer of Dead Dreams is a novel by German writer Harry Thürk, published in 1993 by Mitteldeutscher Verlag. It is an autobiography with fictional elements.
The book was translated to English, Polish, Czech, Russian, Chinese, Slovak, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Vietnamese, Spanish and Finnish.
Małgorzata Jurczak was planning a film adaptation of the book, but it was delayed due to a lack of money.
The characters presented in the book are fictional, but the story is inspired by author's real experiences.

Plot summary

The novel tells about three Germans: Oswald Hirschke, Jakob Latta and Schliebitz and a Romani woman called Alina. The story takes place in the summer of 1945 in Prudnik, shortly after the end of World War II. The main characters live in a ghetto on Chrobrego and Królowej Jadwigi Street, created by the Red Army in April 1945 after the end of the Battle of Prudnik. They are being used by Poles that came to Prudnik after the war and Russian soldiers. They are trying to escape to East Germany.