About this item

A psychological thriller that moves between New Zealand and Soviet dominated East Germany In this river she is herself only. In this silken water, swimming through the deep, cold pockets and sun-warmed shallows, she is only skin.German immigrants Gerda and Ilse Klein live sedate lives of seclusion and routine in a small New Zealand town. Both mother and daughter are affected by their memories of Leipzig, the city the family escaped from in the early 1980s while it was still under the rule of the Stasi. For Ilse, these memories are of a home and friends she loved and still longs for. For Gerda the memories bring the desperate depression which overwhelms her in the dark months of winter. But for now the women look forward to summer, with the promise of peace and rest as Ilse, now a teacher at the local high school, begins her weeks off.