Siblings

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 passion­ately 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 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.

Atmopsheric... complex, prickly, funny... Reimann's novel has the tense mood of a play - a family drama by Henrik Ibsen or Arthur Miller - with plenty of fiery dialogue between the characters about politics, industry and art... [Reimann] is a flash of colour in a grey landscape