What Remains (novella)

What Remains (German: Was Bleibt) is a novella written by Christa Wolf. It was written in 1979 but was not published until 1990, after the Berlin Wall fell.

Summary

It is the story of a day in the life of an East German woman whose apartment and occupational activity are openly watched by the Stasi. The story raises the subject of surveillance, particularly the feeling of paranoia, self-doubt, and the disturbances it causes in everyday life; symptoms of fear and nervousness, such as unrest, sleeplessness, weight-loss, and hair-loss. No conversation can be held within her apartment without the telephone jack being pulled to prevent calls from having unwanted listeners. Telephone calls are a façade, where only code words and petty banter take place. As a first-person narrative, the reader is transported into the author's inner monologue and introspection. By the end of the story she is very much influenced by her listeners, who are school children; they retain an optimism that although today is a bad day or a dark one, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow will be brighter or blissful.