Red Love

Winner of the European Book Prize

“Altogether extraordinary.” —The Los Angeles Review of Books
“Family memoirs don’t come wittier than this little marvel.” —Irish Times
 
Following three generations of German Jews, this “absolutely enthralling” family memoir about life in the GDR during and after World War II reveals what held East Germany together—and what tore it apart (New York Times Book Review).
 
Now, married with two children and the Wall a distant memory, Maxim decides to find the answers to the questions he couldn't ask. Why did his parents, once passionately in love, grow apart? Why did his father become so angry, and his mother quit her career in journalism? And why did his grandfather Gerhard, the Socialist war hero, turn into a stranger? The story he unearths is, like his country's past, one of hopes, lies, cruelties, betrayals but also love. In Red Love he captures, with warmth and unflinching honesty, why so many dreamed the GDR would be a new world and why, in the end, it fell apart.

Growing up in East Berlin, Maxim Leo knew not to ask questions. All he knew was that his rebellious parents, Wolf and Anne, with their dyed hair, leather jackets and insistence he call them by their first names, were a bit embarrassing. That there were some places you couldn't play; certain things you didn't say.