Die Wolke

Did You Know?

• The book was adapted as a film in 2006, directed by Gregor Schnitzler, with Paula Kalenberg and Franz Dinda.
• A stage adaptation in Japan, titled Mienai Kumo (Invisible Clouds), was written by Misaki Setoyama in 2014.
• Die Wolke soon became part of reading curriculum in many schools in Germany.

History

Pausewang wrote Die Wolke in 1987 after the Chernobyl disaster, using information published by the organisation Ärzte gegen den Atomtod in the late 1970s. The novel was adapted as a film in 2006. After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Pausewang stated she wanted to warn of dangers of her time, and sales of Die Wolke surged.

Plot

The story begins at school, where Janna-Berta and others are alarmed of a nuclear accident. She returns home to find her younger brother Uli alone; their parents are away and grandparents on vacation. They flee by bicycle amid road chaos. Uli collapses, is run over by a car and killed. Janna-Berta, in shock, is taken to Bad Hersfeld station, returns to bury her brother, is contaminated by radiation, and collapses. She wakes in a provisional hospital in Herleshausen, witnesses hardships, learns the disaster's extent, loses her hair, and befriends Ayse, who later dies from radiation poisoning. Her aunt from Hamburg tells her that her parents and youngest brother are dead. When her hometown leaves the exclusion zone, she returns, finds her brother's body and buries it, and finds her grandparents at home, to whom she reveals the truth.

Editions

Die Wolke was first published by Maier, Ravensburg, in 1987 in the series Ravensburger junge Reihe. A paperback version appeared as Ravensburger Taschenbuch in 2006, and a Jubiläumsausgabe (anniversary edition) in 2012. An audio book was published by Hörbuch Hamburg in 2011, and an audio play of about 48 minutes by Der Audio Verlag in 2012.