The Last Children of Schewenborn
Gudrun Pausewang
 The story starts in a present of a Cold War situation similar to that at the time of writing. It is told in the first person by Roland, at the beginning a 12-year old (in fact, nearly 13) boy from Bonames (a district of Frankfurt), who travels with his parents and sisters to visit his grandparents at Schewenborn. During this journey they are surprised by a nuclear attack. After the explosion, no assistance arrives from the outside. Survivors start to assume that the whole of Germany, or the entire civilized world, may have been destroyed — but this is never clarified until the end of the novel. The family finds refuge in the house of the grandparents, who at the time of the nuclear explosion were in Fulda and were probably killed there. Shortly afterwards, Roland's mother takes in a young brother and sister who have been orphaned in the attack. The later parts of the plot describe the weeks, months and years after this attack, and take place mostly at Schewenborn. The oppressive story does not have a happy ending. Gradually, members of Roland's family, including a new-born sibling without eyes, die of radiation sickness and other illnesses. At the conclusion, only Roland, his father, and a small group of children -- the "last children" of the title -- remain alive, and the final paragraphs suggest that they, too, will perish.