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Maxim Leo - Red Love: The Story of an East German Family

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London: Pushkin Press, 2014 Why is this book on the bedroom floor?: I’m a sucker for anything set in the former East Germany. Mainly because I’ve been planning to write a book set there for about fifteen years, but now it’s also a “thing” of mine. Well, y’know, some people have got Love Island . About the Author: Maxim Leo is a German journalist who trained as a laboratory assistant in the GDR before swerving completely into political science when the Wall fell. He’s worked for the network RTL and writes regularly for the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. It also appears he’s a screenwriter in Germany. Red Love is published in his homeland as Keep Your Heart Ready , which I think while it doesn’t make any sense in the context of the translation is quite nice. My translation is courtesy of Shaun Whiteside. Plot: Leo delves into his family’s history, pulling apart the thoughts and actions of his parents and grandfathers, and their worth to the socialist state. What he finds is not necessarily