It was fascinating to read about the English translation of Brigitte Reimann’s novel, Die Geschwister, or Siblings (East German feminist author gets English debut, 50 years after death). It made me wonder whether I am partly responsible for the slow progress that her writing has made towards reaching a larger readership in this country.
The article took me back to the impoverished streets of Walthamstow, east London, in the late 1980s. We were four East Midlands lads who’d recently moved to London, with the normal range of interests – beer, girls, gigs and (for one of us) the nightly practice of diligently translating the work of an East German feminist author into English.
