On October 7 1989 East Germany turned 40. For the leaders of the first self-certified “workers’ and peasants’ state on German soil”, this was a moment of great celebration, occasion for a party to which all the top brass of the communist world were invited. Another birthday party in October 1989 is at the centre of Eugen Ruge’s wonderful debut novel In Times of Fading Light, a German bestseller that tells the story of the GDR over 50 years through four generations of a family.