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Siblings

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( 1,568 ratings, 213 reviews)
Brief Description
A stirring novel of idealist loyalty and sibling love, by one of East Germany's most important writers. 1960. The border between East and West Germany has closed. For Elisabeth, a young painter, the GDR is her generation's chance to build an egalitarian socialist future. For her... Read More
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A stirring novel of idealist loyalty and sibling love, by one of East Germany's most important writers.

1960. The border between East and West Germany has closed.

For Elisabeth, a young painter, the GDR is her generation's chance to build an egalitarian socialist future. For her brother Uli, it is a place of stricture and oppression. Separating them is the ever-wider chasm of the party line; over them loom the twin spectres of opportunity and fear, and the shadow of their defector brother Konrad.

In prose as bold as a scarlet paint stroke, Brigitte Reimann battles with the clash of idealism and suppression, familial loyalty and desire. This fervid, ground-breaking novel, written when Reimann was only twenty-seven, remains one of the cult classics of East German literature.

Series: Penguin Modern Classics

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241555842

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 29 February 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Lucy Jones

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 8.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 112g

Pages: 144

About the Author

Brigitte Reimann (Author) Brigitte Reimann (1933-1973) was among East Germany's most significant writers. Like her heroines, she was spirited and outspoken, addressing issues and sensibilities otherwise repressed in the GDR. She believed passion-ately in socialism, yet never joined the party; stayed with her second husband, yet pursued a series of affairs. Her stated aim was to live 'thirty wild years instead of seventy well-behaved ones'. In 1960, her brother left for the West and she began writing Siblings. She died from cancer at the age of thirty-nine, a celebrated writer and cult figure. Lucy Jones (Translator) Lucy Jones is a British translator based in Berlin. She has translated the work of Anke Stelling and Ronald M. Schernikau, among others, and was runner-up in the Schlegel-Tieck Prize in 2023 for her translation of Die Geschwister (Siblings) by Brigitte Reimann. Her own writing has appeared in SAND, Pigeon Pages NYC, LitroMag and others.

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    It All Tastes of Farewell is a frank account of one woman’s life and loves in 1960s East Germany. As a writer, Brigitte Reimann could not help but tell a compelling story, and that is borne out here in her diaries, which are as gripping as any novel. She recorded only what mattered: telling details, emotional truths, and political realities....
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    Continuing where Reimann's earlier book of diaries, I Have No Regrets, left off in 1964, this volume is a compelling and frank account of one woman’s life and loves in 1960s East Germany. It All Tastes of Farewell is a frank account of one woman’s life and loves in 1960s East Germany. As a writer, Brigitte Reimann could not help...
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    A gripping novella by the cult writer of Siblings Kathrin - five years into a disenchanting marriage - struggles to work the farm with her sister-in-law while her husband Heinrich is away fighting for the Third Reich. To help them with the harvest, Heinrich arranges for Alexei, a Russian prisoner of war, to labour in the fields. Though initially suspicious...
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