An enthrallingly expansive family saga set against the backdrop of the collapse of East German communism, from a major new international voice Over 450,000 copies sold in Germany alone • Rights sold in 20 countries • Winner of the German Book Prize • A PW “First Fiction” pick In Times of Fading Light begins in September 2001 as Alexander Umnitzer, who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, leaves behind his ailing father to fly to Mexico, where his grandparents lived as exiles in the 1940s. The novel then takes us both forward and back in time, creating a panoramic view of the family’s history: from Alexander’s grandparents’ return to the GDR to build the socialist state, to his father’s decade spent in a gulag for criticizing the Soviet regime, to his son’s desire to leave the political struggles of the twentieth century in the past. With wisdom, humor, and great empathy, Eugen Ruge draws on his own family history as he masterfully brings to life the tragic intertwining of politics, love, and family under the East German regime

Von den Jahren des Exils bis ins Wendejahr '89 und darüber hinaus reicht diese wechselvolle Geschichte einer deutschen Familie. Sie führt von Mexiko über Sibirien bis in die neu gegründete DDR, führt über die Gipfel und durch die Abgründe des 20. Jahrhunderts. So entsteht ein weites Panorama, ein großer Deutschlandroman, der, ungeheuer menschlich und komisch, Geschichte als Familiengeschichte erlebbar macht