Edgar Selge's New Novel 'Juras letzter Winter' Memorializes Leningrad Victim

Edgar Selge, the renowned German actor, has published his second novel, 'Juras letzter Winter', following his successful debut 'Hast du uns endlich gefunden'. The novel is a tribute to Jura Rjabinkin, a sixteen-year-old who starved to death during the siege of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht. Selge was inspired by Rjabinkin's diary, which he read repeatedly, and the novel imagines a dialogue between the narrator and the boy, exploring themes of youth, dreams, literature, mothers, violence, and intimacy. Selge, born in 1948 in Herford, trained as an actor at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich after studying philosophy, German studies, and classical piano. His debut novel won the Literaturpreis der Stadt Fulda and the Bayern 2-Publikumspreis. Selge will embark on a reading tour across Germany, with stops in Berlin, Göttingen, Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich, Tübingen, Stuttgart, Ludwigshafen, and Saarbrücken from September to November. The novel blends historical reality with literary imagination, offering a poignant memorial to a young life lost.