JURA'S LAST WINTER

  • Personal and German history's darkest years, transformed into brilliant literature.
  • A gripping testament that remembering is a conscious, active choice.
  • Hast du uns endlich gefunden sold 270,000 copies and was celebrated by both critics and readers. Rights were sold to France (Actes Sud) and the Netherlands (De Arbeiderspers).
  • Edgar Selge was awarded the Fulda Literature Prize and the Bayern 2 Audience Award.
  • English sample translation will be available soon.

"It doesn’t matter where we begin to practice trust: with ourselves or with others. We just have to start."

Jura Ryabinkin is sixteen years old when he starves to death during the Siege of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht. He leaves behind a diary that the narrator of this novel reads over and over again, until he soon believes he knows the boy. Jura becomes a fictional character, just as the narrator does. Their encounter begins cautiously and grows closer as the story progresses. Between the two, an exchange unfolds about youth, dreams, literature, mothers, violence, strangeness, and closeness, and they reveal their most personal stories to one another.

Edgar Selge pays tribute to a young human being who was brutally murdered by the Nazis, bringing him to life for his readers. A moving read, a book of irrepressible literary imagination.

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  • Publisher: Rowohlt Hardcover
  • Release: 04.09.2026
  • ISBN: 978-3-498-00344-9
  • 256 Pages
  • Author: Edgar Selge

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Buchcover von JURA'S LAST WINTER
Edgar Selge JURA'S LAST WINTER
Portrait von Edgar Selge
© Muriel Liebmann
Edgar Selge

Edgar Selge , born in 1948, grew up in Herford, East Westphalia. In 1975, he completed his acting training at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. Prior to that, he studied philosophy and German language and literature in Munich and Dublin, as well as classical piano in Vienna. He is widely considered one of Germany’s most prominent character actors and has been honored with numerous awards for his work. In 2021, he made his literary debut with Hast du uns endlich gefunden . The book spent weeks in the top ten of the bestseller list and was enthusiastically celebrated by both critics and readers. It was awarded the Literature Prize of the City of Fulda as well as the Bayern 2 Audience Award.