Siblings

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

It is 1960 & the border between East & West Germany has long been closed. Their brother Konrad has already fled to the West. 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. 

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One of the most significant East German writers, Brigitte Reimann (1933-1973) wrote irreverent, autobiographical works that addressed issues & sensibilities otherwise repressed in the GDR. Outspoken & 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.

Lucy Jones grew up in the United Kingdom & studied German at the University of East Anglia with W.G. Sebald. She translates fiction from German, including works by Anke Stelling, Theresia Enzensberger, & Silke Scheuermann, for a variety of international publishers such as John Murray, Scribe, Seagull, & Dialogue Books. She is the founder of Transfiction, a translators’ collective based in Berlin where she also lives. She has had her work published in SAND, Pigeon Papers NYC, Litro, & 3:AM Magazine.