Description
This novel takes place in the thrilling years of the Weimar Republic in Germany, a time when the first modern queer movements and feminist movements were converging with radical political movements of various stripes--from monarchism and fascism to socialism, communism, and anarchism. This story centers round two lovers, a working class young man named Theodor Priser who at first espouses Communism as a way to fight against the reaction of his times, and Katharina Von Rosen, a rich, beautiful flapper girl who answers with Anarchy, and embraces sexual freedom as essential to any social and political liberation. Katharina, who comes to have the nickname "Katya," leads Theodor (whom she names "Theo") through his inhibitions to embrace anarchy, with all its sexual and spiritual freedom, and the two go on to form a nucleus of radicalism amongst their friends and comrades in the turbulent world of Weimar Berlin. They suffer many trials and tribulations over the years between 1922 and 1933, but come together at the end to deal a blow to the rising Nazi regime of Germany, one which erased and buried the glory of Weimar--though not for all time. In this novel, all the perverse and darkly celebratory beauty of the Lost Generation comes through, and a story is told that gives light to all that has been forgotten--the daring, the freedom, the craziness of the years between the First World War and the rise of Fascism in what was the most liberated city in all the world at that time--Weimar Berlin.