The Leipzig Affair

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the story has twists, turns and many surprises. The main characters of Magda and Robert are very strong, I really like who the author has portaryed them as such a changing time in history. The story starts in East Germany in 1985 and progresses through the time that the Berlin Wall was taken down, it runs through what happened to people who wanted to desert the then DDR and the consequences. I really felt like I was living in the same period of time reading the book. I am lucky enough to have auto approval from the publishers on NetGalley, when I saw this book I jumped at the chance to review it.

Claustrophic story of life in the GDR and the effects following the reunification.

Fiona Rintoul captures life in the GDR very accurately. She describes how citizens had to toe the Party line or face a lifetime of even greater misery forced into dead end jobs and sub-standard housing. She lived there as a British student so knows her stuff. Her descriptions of the Stasi interrogations and life in prison ring very true (I was shown round the Stasi Prison at Berlin-Hohenschönhausen by a former inmate and Rintoul echoes their experiences). I wonder if the author has read her Stasi file and discovered who was informing on her….?

I liked the portrayal of Magda being a genuine believer of “real and existing socialism” until a family bereavement undermines those beliefs and sets her on a destructive course of opposition. However, I did find the characterisation somewhat lacking in depth and when I reached the end it just felt incomplete.

As you can see I’m struggling to put my finger on exactly what’s missing. I wanted to like this a lot, but felt it just wasn’t all there. I think it’s the sort of book that on a second reading I would see very differently and probably end up giving 5 stars.

I have been interested in books on Germany lately, this era that The Leipzig Affair is in particularly. So I was happy to come across this title, and happier so when I was approved for a copy. When I started reading the book, I did have some trouble telling the narrators apart, wondering if there were two or three and who they were. But the different narrative voices for Bob and Magda became clear and made for an enjoyable read of two very different personalities brought together by suffering from socialism. I was particularly drawn into Bob's story line, far enough so that his behavior worried me. I had hoped for an author's note at the end giving information about their research for The Leipzig Affair. Overall, I did enjoy this book and would recommend it.