Echoing themes of Julia Franck's German Book Prize—winning novel, The Blindness of the Heart, Back to Back begins in 1954 and centers around a single family living in Berlin in the socialist East. A cruel and unaffectionate mother, Käthe, is a sculptor of Jewish heritage, devoted entirely to becoming a success in the socialist state. Thomas and Ella's father emigrated to West Germany after World War II, and they deeply long to see him again. But Käthe's hard-nosed brutality-a reflection of the materialistic, unsentimental state in which she lives-means Thomas and Ella are unable to live the lives they want to.
