"1960. The border between East and West Germany has closed. For Elisabeth, a young painter, the GDR is her generation's chance to build a glorious, 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 specters of opportunity and fear, and the shadow of their defector brother Konrad, setting up a clash of idealism and suppression, familial loyalty, and desire. Considered a master of socialist realism, Brigitte Reimann (1933-1973) wrote irreverent, autobiographical works that addressed issues and sensibilities otherwise repressed in the GDR. She wrote in her diaries: "I enjoyed success too early, married the wrong man, and hung out with the wrong people; too many men have liked me, and I've liked too many men." After her death from cancer in 1973 at the age of 39, she garnered cult-like attention. This is Reimann's first work of fiction to appear in English"-- Provided by publisher.
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