Winterspelt

More about the book

In Winterspelt, a village in the Eifel region, the lives of six individuals intersect on the eve of the Ardennes Offensive in October 1944. The central thread is Major Dincklage's planned coup, a holder of the Knight's Cross: in order to prevent senseless bloodshed, he intends to surrender his battalion to the Americans without a fight. Winterspelt, published in 1974 as Andersch's last novel, explores how events might have unfolded differently: "History tells how it was. Narrative explores a possibility."