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
"Beautiful and supremely touching." -Sunday Telegraph, Book of the Week
Following three generations of German Jews, this "absolutely enthralling" family memoir of life in the GDR during and after World War II reveals what held East Germany together-and what tore it apart (The 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.
Industry Reviews
Beautiful and supremely touching -- Keith Lowe, author of Savage Continent Sunday Telegraph A serious, very moving book... a weave of narratives about five lives, connected by blood and marriage but divided by politics -- Neal Ascherson London Review of Books Simultaneously gripping and meditative, an engaging and thought-provoking portrait of a disappeared world -- Natasha Tripney Observer Compelling ... [Leo] is terrific at elucidating the slow, incremental steps by which people come to lie to themselves... guile, guilt and disappointment drip from these pages and Red Love is all the more affecting for it -- Marina Benjamin New Statesman With truthful tenderness and wry humour, Maxim Leo looks back not in anger but in an effort to understand the past -- Iain Finlayson The Times Honest and sober... a convincing depiction of what everyday life was like and the legacy it has left... illuminating Metro An absorbing and personal account that gives outsiders an insight into life in the GDR Shortlist [Red Love] gives us extraordinary, intimate access to East Germany when the state was not just in the family apartment but locked within the minds and aspirations of all its citizens Sunday Telegraph Red Love is an important and compelling book for many reasons, but perhaps more than anything it reminds us of the pull of family, however flawed it might be -- Susie Dent Spectator Red Love... is a memoir about three leftist German generations in a family seeking Utopia and trying to stay whole. -- Neal Ascherson Glasgow Herald Illuminating ... Red Love offers an engaging exploration of the complex decades that caused families to become strangers to one another, and a refreshing response to the deceptively simple question: "What was it like?" Independent Persuasive and absorbing... written with warmth, humour and no shortage of self-criticism -- Peter Graves TLS [S]earching and sensitive chronicle of three generations making the journey from euphoric hope to disillusionment to despair New York Times Extraordinarily compelling... Red Love is a story about the confusion and fear that came to those who lived in East Germany and suddenly saw their country disappear. Leo's memoir humanizes this history and offers readers a glimpse into a different past. New York Daily News A compassionate memoir... By unpicking the loyalties of both political and family life, Leo honours the complicated motivations of real people, resulting in a humane, enlightening history of a collapsed country and a lost home. Guardian Maxim Leo has produced a lucid, dispassionate, and altogether extraordinary account of three generations of his German family as Big History kicked them around and they, for the most part, made sterling attempts to kick back Los Angeles Review of Books Most touching memoir of a life in East Germany... so beautiful -- Susie Dent Radio 4's A Good Read The most extraordinary book, fascinating... a brilliant picture of a time... and of a place... I'd never seen [the GDR] like this before -- Harriet Gilbert Radio 4's A Good Read
