Siblings by Brigitte Reimann

A story of sibling love ruptured by the Iron Curtain, by one of the most significant East German writers.

“I will never forgive you,” Uli says to his sister Elisabeth.

Disillusioned by life in the East, Uli also dreams of escape, while Elisabeth still holds out hope for the political project of the GDR. With physical checkpoints and ideological tensions between them, the siblings must navigate emotional rifts as they enter into a drama fueled by love in this unflinching portrayal of life in the early years of the German Democratic Republic.

One of the most significant East German writers, Brigitte Reimann (1933–1973) wrote irreverent, autobiographical works that addressed issues and sensibilities otherwise repressed in the GDR. Outspoken and idealistic, she wrote in her diaries that she would rather “live 30 wild years instead of 70 well-behaved ones.”
Considered a master of socialist realism, she heeded the state’s call for artists to engage with the people, teaching writing classes for industrial plant workers. Of her generation’s suffering, she wrote to her brother, “We marched forth carrying such a heavy baggage of ideals.”

After her death from cancer in 1973, at age 39, Reimann garnered cult-like attention. This is her first work of fiction to appear in English.

Siblings
by Brigitte Reimann
translated by Lucy Jones
Publisher: Penguin Classics
1st edition 2 Feb. 2023
Language: ‎English
Paperback
‎144 pages
ISBN-10: ‎0241555833
ISBN-13: ‎978-0241555835
£12.99

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