Forgotten Land: Journeys Among the Ghosts of East Prussia

by Max Egremont

No country embodied the turbulence of twentieth century Europe more dramatically than East Prussia. The scene of Stalin's `terrible revenge', it was carved up between Poland and the USSR after World War II - and passed abruptly into history. Many of its refugees are still alive and with astonishing stories to tell.

Max Egremont's first travels to the old East Prussia took him to a post-communist desert. But at the turn of the twenty-first century he found a very different land: a Kaliningrad caught up in the materialism of Putin's Russia, and across the border, a northern Poland that had become part of the European Union. He found himself on the borders of a new Europe.

Forgotten Land evokes an often beautiful landscape of ghosts, a region rich in culture and tradition, famously military, artistically fertile, haunted by tragedy and memories of greatness. Travelling to the birthplace of Kant, and going on to meet survivors from the great families of East Prussia, Max Egremont has written a personal and profoundly moving book: an account that combines atmosphere, history and travel in an evocative meditation on identity and the passing of time.

• ISBN10: 0374533563
• ISBN13: 9780374533564
• Publish Date: 13 November 2012 (first published 3 June 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 359
• Language: English

Reviews

[charlton]

This book had so much information it.East Prussia went through so much shit in their history.They were invaded by Germany,Russia,Poland,I think Latvia or Lithuania or both.So I think it's safe to say this area of Europe is Slavic.

The book was really good and informative,I actually read it because I learned my family heritage traces back to East Prussia.