"Dear dear Christa, it's wonderful that you are still here on this crazy planet!" writes Sarah Kirsch in the autumn of 1988 to her friend, who has just overcome a life-threatening illness. A decade earlier, Christa Wolf notes after a meeting in West Berlin, shortly after Kirsch's departure from the GDR: "I am glad that I was with you and can now think of you in complete peace." For almost three decades, from 1962 to 1990, these two internationally renowned authors have been in correspondence: discussing writing, the literary scene in both the East and the West, the men, the children, the work in the garden, and the political systems in which they live. It is likely these very systems that bring this friendship to an end after many years of trusting companionship. Strict yet playful, cheerful yet desperate, cheeky yet honest – observing Sarah Kirsch and Christa Wolf as they write and live is a gift.