Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
In Times of Fading Light
In Times of Fading Light: A Novel | Eugen Ruge
3 posts | 4 read | 1 to read
An enthrallingly expansive family saga set against the backdrop of the collapse of East German communism, from a major new international voice * Over 450,000 copies sold in Germany alone * Rights sold in 20 countries * Winner of the German Book Prize * A PW "First Fiction" pick * In Times of Fading Light begins in September 2001 as Alexander Umnitzer, who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, leaves behind his ailing father to fly to Mexico, where his grandparents lived as exiles in the 1940s. The novel then takes us both forward and back in time, creating a panoramic view of the family's history: from Alexander's grandparents' return to the GDR to build the socialist state, to his father's decade spent in a gulag for criticizing the Soviet regime, to his son's desire to leave the political struggles of the twentieth century in the past. With wisdom, humor, and great empathy, Eugen Ruge draws on his own family history as he masterfully brings to life the tragic intertwining of politics, love, and family under the East German regime.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
Kathrin
post image
Pickpick

The book is a four generational family drama following an Eastern German family from around the 1930s through 2001, giving a history lesson about the GDR while we are at it.

The whole story is basically a collection of vignettes showing different stories from different view points throughout the times.

The step grandpa's birthday is a central scene in the book that was covered several times from different view points.

review
nosferatu
post image
Pickpick

Surprisingly, I completely and utterly enjoyed this.

1 stack add
blurb
ThursdayN
post image

4 days at the Gothenburg Book Fair has taken it's toll and I'm dead tired. It has been great though. Lots of interesting seminars and it has been great to catch up with friends that I only meet once a year. ❤️