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Fiona Rintoul on Blog Tour for The Leipzig Affair,
October 9-November 9

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The Leipzig Affair
by Fiona Rintoul

Publication Date: November 10, 2014
Aurora Metro Books
eBook & Paperback; 300 Pages

Genre: Fiction/Historical/Thriller/Literary

 

 

Winner of the 2013 Virginia Prize
As heard on BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime

The year is 1985. East Germany is in the grip of communism. Magda, a brilliant but disillusioned young linguist, is desperate to flee to the West. When a black market deal brings her into contact with Robert, a Scottish research student at Leipzig University, she conceives a plan to escape. Robert stumbles into a complex world of shifting half-truths – one that will undo them both. More than a decade later, Robert returns to post-communist Leipzig in search of answers. Can he track Magda down? And will the past give up its secrets?

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Praise for The Leipzig Affair

“Deftly told in short, punchy chapters, the thriller is a page-turner that shifts from East to West and the dark days of the 1980s to present reunification.” – The Evening Times

“Rintoul pulls the reader through her story with craft and psychological precision, while trawling a satisfyingly long way into her characters’ pasts and futures.” – The Scotsman

“The Leipzig Affair is a gripping, complex debut that thrills through the human stories it tells of the Cold War, stories of flawed individuals caught in circumstances beyond their control, in a world in which nobody can be trusted. A hugely evocative read.” – Zoë Strachan, author of Negative Space

“… a hugely talented writer, The Leipzig Affair will resonate loud and clear with anyone conscious of the dangers of CCTV culture in modern Britain. A stark warning and a powerful story.” – Rodge Glass, author of Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs

“I read this in one go, never quite sure who to trust or believe – the good or the bad. A psychologically complex story that brilliantly reflects disturbing times in a divided city and society. Its sharp, clever, sentences kept me hooked right to the end.” – Linda Leatherbarrow, author of Essential Kit

“… a story of betrayal only partly redeemed by love, by an author who hauntingly evokes the milieu.” – Jonathan Falla, author of The Physician of Sanlúcar

About the Author

Fiona Rintoul is a writer, journalist and translator. While studying German at St Andrews University in the 1980s, she was an exchange student at Karl-Marx University Leipzig. Her experience of living and studying behind the Iron Curtain was the start of a lifelong interest in the former East Germany that culminated in The Leipzig Affair, which was shortlisted in the 2015 Saltire awards and serialised on BBC R4’s Book at Bedtime. Fiona is also the author of Whisky Island, a celebration of the Isle of Islay and its eight whisky distilleries that was shortlisted in the 2017 Fortnum & Mason food and drink awards, and translator of Outside Verdun (Erziehung vor Verdun), Arnold Zweig’s first world war masterpiece. She is a graduate of the Glasgow University creative writing programme and a past winner of the Gillian Purvis new writing award and the Sceptre prize. She lives in Glasgow and on the Isle of Harris.

For more information please visit Fiona Rintoul’s website. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.