Set in Romania at the height of Ceausescu's reign of terror, The Land of Green Plums tells the story of a group of young students, each of whom has left the impoverished provinces in search of better prospects in the city. It is a profound illustration of a totalitarian state which comes to inhabit every aspect of life; to the extent that everyone, event the strongest, must either bend to the oppressors or resist them and perish.

Prizes

Winner of International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.,Winner of IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.,Winner of International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

A powerful autobiographical account, The Land of Green Plums ... will linger on in the mind and Michael Hofmann's translation is a marvel * Guardian *
The Land of Green Plums is a miracle, a fearless human testimony which operates through the combined force of Müller's tight, understated eloquence and Hofmann's deft, atmospheric translation * Irish Times *
If W. G. Sebald's The Emigrants suggested there are still new ways of writing about exile and the Holocaust, The Land of Green Plums promises similar possibilities for the literature of the Iron Curtain * Literary Review *
Compelling reading * Sunday Times *
... genuinely moving. The book ... develops an almost hypnotic power over the reader * Sunday Telegraph *
Herta Müller ... is among the finest writers of protest ... The Land of Green Plums is a miracle * Irish Independent *
Müller's clarity and compassion leaves all the weeping to the reader * New Statesman *
taut, marvellously translated * Observer *
Poetic and powerful * Express *
This book cannot fail to impress * Big Issue in the North *
No number of re-readings will lessen the impact of Muller's ... terrifying masterpiece * The Irish Times *
Since publication the novel's reputation has been steadily growing * Irish Independent *
As a depiction of a world where you have to be very careful what you say, The Land of Green Plums works hauntingly, disturbingly well -- Nick Lezard * Guardian *
Nothing I have read brings home more the horror of a society which combined agrarian backwardness with the monstrosities of the one-party state -- Anne McElvoy * Evening Standard *

Herta Müller was born on 17 August 1953 in Banat, Romania. In 1987, she emigrated to Germany and has lived in Berlin ever since. She is the author of The Land of Green Plums, The Appointment, The Hunger Angel and The Fox Was Ever the Hunter, among other works. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009.