If you read the title of this book not in German as "sentimental" (which could also be self-irony), but in Italian as "sentimentale," then listen to what is meant: a geography of feelings, an exploration of those movements of the soul (of the heart?) that lead us through life—strengthening, fulfilling, and painful—and beyond. "Never tearfully sentimental, not even where tears literally appear; sometimes a hint of irony, no grand gestures, no pathos, no cursing of the mercilessly flowing time, no angry condemnation of the unchangeable," writes Günter Kunert in the preface.