The fall of the Wall in 1989 prompted many literary responses.
The File: A Personal History Timothy Garton Ash In the late 1970s, a young historian from Oxford University went to Berlin to research his dissertation on the Nazi period. Garton Ash (now one of the most astute observers of Central and Eastern Europe) spent time in both sides of the divided city and reported on life in the East. After unification, he discovered that the Stasi had been keeping a file on him. Part memoir, part investigative journalism, this is his story of reading that file (and comparing it to his own notes from that time) and tracking down and interviewing his informers.
Stasiland: Stories From Behind the Berlin Wall Anna Funder As a young Australian on a fellowship in Berlin, Anna Funder became intrigued by the personal stories of those who had experienced the notorious Stasi. Her first chapter of this award-winning book, for which she interviewed former Stasi agents, shows just how far the secret police would go in their surveillance, right down to collecting smell samples of suspects' underwear and storing them in jars.
The Wall Jumper Peter Schneider Published in 1983, this slim novel beautifully renders a city with a split psyche by following characters who, for varying reasons, cross from one side of Berlin to the other (some just to see a Western movie, one just because he can). Schneider is also an accomplished journalist who had earlier written about "the wall in the head," recognizing that the psychological divide between the East and West citizens would endure longer than any physical structure. The book was re-released a few years ago with a new introduction by Ian McEwan.
Aimee and Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 Erica Fischer An unconventional love story set in the Second World War, this true tale was made into a movie. The original book (written in 1943, but not published in North America until 1995) uses diaries, poems and letters to illuminate an affair between two women. One was a middle-class mother of four whose husband was fighting in the war; the other was a Jew living under a false name. Less a story of lesbian love than a portrait of a terrible time, this is a tale without a happy ending.
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City Anonymous Anonymous was an editor and journalist, and she brought her professional skills to this eight-week diary of life in occupied Berlin. Starting in April 1945, as Red Army soldiers looted and raped the city and its inhabitants (including the author), this uncompromising story is deeply personal without being emotional. Originally published in 1954, it was not well received by postwar readers. Fifty years later, when it was reissued, it became a bestseller - with some critics calling it a war classic.
Berlin Noir Philip Kerr Imagine if Raymond Chandler had set his potboilers in Nazi Germany. This trilogy introduces wise-cracking, hard-living Bernie Gunther and starts in 1936 Berlin, ending after the war. Gunther has left a corrupt police force to become a private investigator. It's a police procedural mystery set in a land where the law has gone wrong. Kerr manages to pack his page-turners with fascinating details about the city; you'll emerge with a prewar map in your mind.
Every Man Dies Alone Hans Fallada Although written in 24 days in 1947, this novel wasn't translated into English until this year. Based on a true story, it's the tale of a working-class couple in Berlin who, after their son is killed on the front, decide to take a stand and launch a postcard campaign against the Nazi regime. Soon the Gestapo is on their trail. It may read like a thriller, but Auschwitz survivor and author Primo Levi has called it "the greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis."
Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf Alfred Doblin Voted one of the Top 100 books of all time (by writers in 54 countries), this 600-plus pages of experimental (or expressionist) fiction is regarded as a masterpiece. Set between the wars in a part of Berlin that no longer exists, this novel was considered Germany's first big city novel. Franz Biberkopf has just been released from prison and has trouble adjusting to the "real world." Also a 16-hour series filmed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Berlin: City of Stones (Book One) Jason Lutes Lutes is an American artist who began an ongoing 24-chapter graphic novel about the twilight years of the Weimar Republic in the late 1990s. City of Stones was published in 2001 and, because of the novel way Lutes combines text and visuals, has been compared to Wim Wenders's film City of Angels . Book Two: City of Smoke was published last year.
Book of Clouds Chloe Aridjis This debut novel about a young Mexican woman living in Berlin got rave reviews when it was published this year. The story manages to mix present and past, as the central character explores the underbelly of contemporary Berlin while also working for a historian obsessed with the city's complicated past.
Alison Gzowski lived in Eastern Europe for a year after the events of 1989 and wrote the bookFacing Freedom: The Children of Eastern Europe, documenting how the dramatic political changes affected teenagers. She also produced a one-hour documentary on that topic for the CBC.