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WINNER OF THE 2009 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
 From the winner of the IMPAC Award, a fierce novel about a young Romanian woman's discovery of betrayal in the most intimate reaches of her life

"I've been summoned. Thursday, ten sharp." Thus begins one day in the life of a young clothing-factory worker during Ceaucescu's totalitarian regime. She has been questioned before; this time, she believes, will be worse. Her crime? Sewing notes into the linings of men's suits bound for Italy. "Marry me," the notes say, with her name and address. Anything to get out of the country.

As she rides the tram to her interrogation, her thoughts stray to her friend Lilli, shot trying to flee to Hungary, to her grandparents, deported after her first husband informed on them, to Major Albu, her interrogator, who begins each session with a wet kiss on her fingers, and to Paul, her lover, her one source of trust, despite his constant drunkenness. In her distraction, she misses her stop to find herself on an unfamiliar street. And what she discovers there makes her fear of the appointment pale by comparison.

Herta Müller pitilessly renders the humiliating terrors of a crushing regime. Bone-spare and intense, The Appointment confirms her standing as one of Europe's greatest writers.
Born in Romania in 1953, Herta Müller lost her job as a teacher and suffered repeated threats after refusing to cooperate with Ceausescu's Secret Police. She succeeded in emigrating in 1987 and now lives in Berlin. The recipient of the European Literature Prize, she has also won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for her previous novel, The Land of Green Plums.
From the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, The Appointment is a fierce novel about a young Romanian woman's discovery of betrayal in the most intimate reaches of her life. "I've been summoned. Thursday, ten sharp." Thus begins one day in the life of a young clothing-factory worker during Ceaucescu's totalitarian regime. She has been questioned before; this time, she believes, will be worse. She is charged with sewing notes into the linings of men's suits bound for Italy. She writes "Marry me" on slips of paper and provides her name and address; she'll do anything to get out of the country.

As she rides the tram to her interrogation, her thoughts stray to her friend Lilli, shot trying to flee to Hungary, to her grandparents, deported after her first husband informed on them, to Major Albu, her interrogator, who begins each session with a wet kiss on her fingers, and to Paul, her lover, her one source of trust, despite his constant drunkenness. In her distraction, she misses her stop to find herself on an unfamiliar street. And what she discovers there makes her fear of the appointment pale by comparison.

Herta Müller pitilessly renders the terrors of a crushing regime. Bone-spare and intense, The Appointment confirms her standing as one of Europe's greatest writers.
"Herta Müller's prose is as haunting as a cloud that won't go away, brittle like ice that won't ever crack, and sharp like plum brandy you'll never wish to forget. Hers is the voice of a world forever slipping into a vertigo of silent rage while desperately struggling to be human—a world which confuses kindness with cruelty because it has already confused good and evil."—André Aciman, author of Out of Egypt

"A slim, masterfully written tale."—Newsweek

"A brooding, fog-shrouded allegory of life under the long oppression of the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu."—The New York Times

"Powerful . . . Müller achieves something beautiful. She has wrested poetry from one woman's desire to remain human in an inhuman system."—Newsday

"Müller scatters narrative bombshells across a field of dreams."—San Francisco Chronicle

"With terse poetry, Müller brings to life a profoundly moving world . . . the lyrical beauty of the prose and its unflinching moral and emotional honesty carry the reader."—Bookforum

"Sensitive, observant, unrelenting—and compelling."—Kirkus Reviews

"Dark and sparse, capturing the chilling reality of life in a country in turmoil. It is a gritty novel that will leave one guessing the young woman's fate long after the last page is read."—Carolyn Kubisz, Booklist
"The hardships and humiliations of Communist Romania are on display in this taut novel by the winner of the European Literature Prize . . . Appropriately disorienting and tightly wound, this perfectly controlled narrative offers a chilling picture of human adaptation and survival under oppression."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About the Author

Born in Romania in 1953, Herta Müller lost her job as a teacher and suffered repeated threats after refusing to cooperate with Ceausescu's Secret Police. She succeeded in emigrating in 1987 and now lives in Berlin. The recipient of the European Literature Prize, she has also won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for her previous novel, The Land of Green Plums.

Praise for The Appointment…

“A brooding, fog-shrouded allegory of life under the long oppression of the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu.” —The New York Times

“A slim, masterfully written tale.” —Newsweek

“A taut and brilliant book.” —Chicago Tribune

“Powerful...Müller achieves something beautiful. She has wrested poetry from one woman’s desire to remain human in an inhuman system.”—Newsday

“Müller scatters narrative bombshells across a field of dreams.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“With terse poetry, Müller brings to life a profoundly moving world...the lyrical beauty of the prose and its unflinching moral and emotional honesty carry the reader.” —Bookforum