I have Péter Bacsó to thank for the idea of sending a tailor and his wife from the East German provinces to Lake Balaton in August 1989.
The following films and books, among others, spurred my imagination: Kein Abschied—nur fort, a film by Joachim Tschirner and Lew Hohmann, 1991; Und nächstes Jahr am Balaton, directed by Herrmann Zschoche, 1979/1980; The Swimmer, by Zsuzsa Bánk, translated by Margot Bettauer Dembo (New York, 2005); Heimspiel, by Ines Geipel (Berlin, 2005); and Balaton-Brigade, by György Dalos (Berlin, 2006).
A large portion of this book was written in 2007 at the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo, a paradise of a place. The role of patron was played by the Federal Republic of Germany, those of angels/cherubim by the staff of the villa. The other stipendiary fellows became my fellow exiles.