Back to Back

The moving story of a brother and a sister caught in the tide of the Cold War Kathe is a Jewish sculptor living in East Berlin. A survivor of the Nazi era, she is a fervent socialist who has been using her political connections to secure more significant commissions. Devoted entirely to success, she is a cruel and abrasive mother to her children. Kathe barely acknowledges Ella''s vulnerable loneliness and Thomas''s quiet aspirations, and her hard-nosed brutality forces her children to build an imaginary world as a shelter from the coldness that surrounds them. But the siblings find themselves enclosed by the Berlin Wall, and unable to pursue their dreams. Heartbreaking and shocking, Back to Back is a dark fairytale of East Germany - a moving personal story of love, betrayal and disillusionment within a single family that reflects the greater tragedy of the world around them.

Product details

• Authors: Julia Franck
• Assisted by: Anthea Bell (Translation)
• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2013
• EAN: 9781846556296
• ISBN: 978-1-84655-629-6
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 144 mm x 225 mm x 29 mm
• Series: HARVILL SECKER
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature > Contemporary literature (from 1945)