Waldfried: A Novel
1874
A German family torn apart by time and distance finds its way back to each other, only to discover that the home they remember has become strange to them. The novel opens with a letter from Ludwig Waldfried's son, writing from America: his young son Wolfgang has nearly died, and in his feverish delirium the boy's first coherent words were a desperate longing for "the forest" and his grandfather. The family decides to return. But when they arrive, the grandmother is gone, dead while they were away. The Germany they left behind has been reshaped by revolution and the forging of a new nation. Through the devoted servant Rothfuss and the elderly Ludwig awaiting his grandchildren, Auerbach weaves a tender meditation on what it means to leave, to return, and to find that the soil you loved has grown over your absence. The forest remains, but everyone who walks through it has changed.
