This fascinating novel practically begs for a second read. Both the prose and the social observations made throughout are complex. The novel is both challenging and rewarding. It exhilarated me with its perspectives and characters and observations, and then in the next chapter asked me to catch up w ...more

1965, East Germany. "Arrest was everywhere in Kritzhagen, like traffic or rain...Declarations [were Vati's] favorite form of talking-Mutti too afraid to challenge him...Perhaps [Mutti] tried and failed to find a way to stay...certain they'd never make it across the border". "West was not home, but a ...more

Thomas Grattan's "The Recent East" tells the intergenerational story of a family that finds a home in a world populated with sadness but also with joy, and who find their lives inextricably intertwined.

Beate was a young girl when her family defected from East Germany in hopes of a better life. Movin ...more

The Recent East introduces novelist Thomas Grattan, and it’s an impressive debut. It follows a family of German-Americans from 1965, when the eldest emigrates from East Germany with her parents, to the present. I initially decide to read it because of the setting; it’s the first fiction I’ve read se ...more