Description
The Architects is a historical novel set in the German Democratic Republic in the late 1950s, during the political thaw that followed Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin. Written by Stefan Heym between 1963 and 1966, the novel draws on a period of East German and Soviet history that the author had experienced firsthand.
Daniel, a Communist exile who fled Hitler and was later imprisoned in Moscow after being accused of treachery, returns to Germany and resumes his career as an architect. He is taken on by his former colleague Arnold Sundstrom, now the chief architect of a major GDR construction project. When Arnold’s young wife Julia becomes involved with Daniel, she begins to uncover secrets surrounding her husband’s success and the deaths of her parents in Moscow. Suspense, romance and political intrigue come together in a story about betrayal, ambition and the lasting effects of Stalinist repression.
