Woman in the Pillory

Author: Reimann, Brigitte ISBN: 9780241718971 Publisher: Penguin UK Year first published: 28 Jan 2026 Pages: 160 Format: Paperback / softback A gripping 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.