RaveTimes Literary Supplement\"There is considerable Ostalgia in Kairos, but it is of a grown-up kind, neither naively glorifying nor vilifying what was. Its characters having progressed from idealism through the horrors of disenchantment, and arrived at a synthesis in which the previous stages have been properly worked through, the novel is perhaps best described as post-tragic in spirit ... Erpenbeck’s portrayal of both Hans and the dying GDR emphasizes the troubling coexistence of a grander social vision and totalitarianism. As the relationship between the lovers darkens, Hans becomes more deplorable but also elicits our pity ... The big changes are crucial, of course, but Erpenbeck is equally interested in smaller, preparatory tremors ... Erpenbeck invites us to appreciate the chiaroscuro, to look more discerningly at the many nuanced shades of good and bad that were at work in the German Democratic Republic.\
