Wolfgang Hilbig worked as a stoker; his writing literally emerged from the boiler room, dark, poetic, idiosyncratic work unwelcome in the GDR. Hilbig moved to West Germany in 1985. Among many prestigious awards, in 2002 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize for his life’s work. He died in 2007, leaving a substantial oeuvre. One of Germany’s most important post- war writers, his books have never before appeared in English.