Matthias Jügler, the German author of the bestselling novel Mayfly Season, has faced unexpected hostility from government officials in Germany over his work. The book, which is now being published in the UK, delves into the traumatic legacy of forced adoptions in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Shortly after the novel's German release in 2024, Jügler received a call from an employee of the German government agency tasked with investigating human rights abuses in the socialist east. The caller asked him to explain his historical sources and his plans for his next book. This followed an accusation from another official that Jügler was traumatizing readers, and a request from a reading organizer for documents proving the plot's plausibility.
"I thought, holy crap, what is going on here?" Jügler, 41, recalls. "I was completely taken aback. Why am I being put in a position where I have to justify what I write in a work of fiction?"
Despite the controversy, Mayfly Season is not an explosive exposé but a quiet, meditative novella about fly-fishing. The story follows narrator Hans, a 65-year-old man, as he fishes on the Unstrut river in Thuringia. Beneath the surface of nature writing lies a traumatic event: the death of his newborn son Daniel decades earlier—or so he was told. After his first wife, Katrin, died of cancer, Hans begins to regret not taking her doubts seriously. Then, an unexpected phone call reveals that Daniel may still be alive.
Jügler, born in the GDR in 1984, initially planned a different novel. His wife directed him to a Facebook group for mothers affected by so-called "forced adoption." He spoke to one woman, whom he calls Karin S. She gave birth in 1986, and doctors told her the baby died, but she remembered her daughter's healthy screams. Hospital records showed no illness or death certificate. Exhumation revealed the skull was too large for a newborn, and a DNA test matched, but a missing official stamp suggested a cover-up.
"I had never heard a story like that before," Jügler says. He tried writing from the mother's perspective twice, but his agent rejected both attempts. Frustrated, he shaved his head. Then he asked himself how he would cope: "I knew I wouldn't turn to drink or drugs. I would go fishing." He completed the book in two months. Published in March 2024, it won literary prizes and critical acclaim.
The novel's success in Germany mirrors that of Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These, which tackled Ireland's Magdalene laundries without naming the scandal. Similarly, Mayfly Season does not speculate why the state stole Daniel. Yet it has reopened wounds. The state of Saxony-Anhalt's commissioner for victims of the East German dictatorship warned that the book could "reopen wounds" and cause "retraumatisation." A reading organizer demanded evidence of factual basis, and Jügler declined the invitation.
"I realised writing about this whole subject is still an absolute no-go area for some people today," he says. He speculates the hostility may be financial. Andreas Laake, head of a victims' association, estimates up to 8,000 forced adoptions and 2,000 suspicious infant deaths. A state-commissioned report in early 2025 insisted these were isolated incidents, not systematic. Proving otherwise could obligate compensation to thousands.
Culturally, Jügler notes that eastern German readers now prefer books that view GDR life leniently. "When you tackle the dark sides of the GDR in 2026, a lot of people are quick to feel that you are devaluing their lives," he says. "But as a storyteller it's not my intention to devalue anyone. I am merely interested in people whose lives didn't run according to their plans."
Mayfly Season, translated by Jo Heinrich, is published by The Indigo Press on 14 May.
