User:Mz7/The End of Days

The End of Days (Aller Tage Abend) is a book by German writer Jenny Erpenbeck, originally published in German in 2012. In 2014, Susan Bernofsky translated the book into English.

Plot summary
The End of Days is divided into five books, with "intermezzos" between each book. The main character dies at the end of each book, and each following book depicts what would have happened had the character survived the events of the preceding book. Set in 1902 in Austria-Hungary, the first book depicts the death of an infant and its impact on the lives of her parents. The second book depicts the events that would have occurred had the infant survived and lived in wartime Vienna. In the third book, the main character emigrates to the Soviet Union and is arrested by the KGB. In the fourth book, the character gives birth to a son. In the fifth book, she outlives the Soviet Union and dies of old age. The character remains unnamed until the last book.

Reception
The English translation of the book received the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2015, making Erpenbeck the first German novelist to receive the award. In a review of the English translation published by The Guardian, Kapka Kassabova described The End of Days as Jenny Erpenbeck's "most philosophically and technically ambitious work yet".