A gripping never-before-translated novella by the cult writer of Siblings Kathrin - five
years into a disenchanting marriage - struggles to work the farm with her sister-in-law while
her husband Heinrich is away fighting for the Third Reich. To help them with the harvest
Heinrich arranges for Alexei a Russian prisoner of war to labour in the fields. Though
initially suspicious of this watchful stranger Kathrin is soon drawn to Alexei with ruinous
consequences. First published in 1956 Woman in the Pillory is a formative novella by one of
East Germany's most significant writers showcasing Brigitte Reimann's vivid ideological
engagement with the legacy of Nazi Germany and the Communist drive to create 'a new kind of
person' following the devastation of the war. Translated by Lucy Jones
