A review by elfs29
Siblings by Brigitte Reimann

emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

Reimann has produced a complex and interesting snapshot of life in East Germany during the Cold War from the perspective of a young socialist woman with a bourgeois background. The complexity and severity of the political situation and the divide in Germany intwines naturally with her narrative and relationships, not to mention that the prose is absolutely beautiful, offering a detailed image of her, the way her experiences have affected her and the way she perceives those she loves. 

It had been very early. The orange-red sun rose above the horizon, and the shadows of the trees and the fences were long and cold. That June morning had the exquisite clarity and freshness of bright cherries washed clean by the night’s rainfall. The silence, still linked to the night, was broken only by birdsong, and not one plume of smoke, not one leaden grey vapour trail sullied the cheerful blue sky.