This is part of my Summer Reads series where I’ll be sharing book recommendations – a series of “not just cookbooks”.
It’s the final week of #summerreads for this year and I’ve got one of my favourite reads of the summer to share with you today – releases tomorrow, August 27th 2024. I was fortunate enough to receive an advance copy of Bryn Turnbull‘s The Berlin Apartment and I finished it in one day. I was a huge fan of Turnbull’s well-written, well-researched gripping The Paris Deception and couldn’t wait to read her latest. It did not disappoint.
From the publisher:
For fans of Kate Quinn and Kristin Hannah, this sweeping love story follows a young couple whose lives are irrevocably changed when they’re separated overnight by the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Berlin 1961: When Uli Neumann proposes to Lise Bauer, she has every reason to accept. He offers her love, respect, and a life beyond the strict bounds of the East German society in which she was raised — which she longs to leave more than anything. But only two short days after their engagement, Lise and Uli are torn violently apart when barbed wire is rolled across Berlin, splitting the city into two hostile halves: capitalist West Berlin, an island of western influence isolated far beyond the iron curtain; and the socialist East, a country determined to control its citizens by any means necessary.
Soon, Uli and his friends in West Berlin hatch a plan to get Lise and her unborn child out of East Germany, but as distance and suspicion bleed into their lives and as weeks turn to months, how long can true love survive in the divided city?
Bryn Turnbull does it again!
My knowledge of the Berlin Wall prior to reading this book is like most others of my generation – I know it was built and why (though understanding that is another story) and I remember where I was when it started to be torn down in 1989 (and had friends who were there shortly after and who recounted what they saw). But in terms of how it affected everyday Berliners, I had no idea – no real understanding of the impact of the Berlin Wall on everyday life and so, it was this level of detail that made this book so compelling.
Lise and Uli are brutally separated one day as the Wall goes up with no notice, just after they get secretly engaged (complicating matters if they wish to reunite in the West). Laer, lise realises she is expecting Uli’s baby. Her education and job (and now, future family) prospects are in the West, she is trapped in the East. How do you get on with life when your future has been abruptly taken away from you? And your fiancé is literally off limits?
Yes, there’s romance but it’s not a love story per se. The devastating events that conspire to keep Lise and Uli apart despite their best efforts to reunite after the wall separates them, seemingly for good are the main focus of the story, though. It’s a tale of courage, of strength and determination and it’s a page turner just like the best thriller novels are. You will laugh and cry and cheer for these characters who are so beautifully developed.
Well-written and incredibly well-researched. I could not put this down.
Disclosure: I received an advance digital copy from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I am not receiving any compensation for reviewing the book. Neither the author nor the publisher reviewed this post prior to publication. All opinions are my own.
Buy The Berlin Apartment on Amazon (this affiliate link should bring you to the Amazon store in, or closest to, your country).
For free worldwide shipping, find The Berlin Apartment on Blackwell’s.
Support your local Indie bookstore and purchase The Berlin Apartment on Bookshop.org.
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Disclosure: I received an advance copy from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I am not receiving any compensation for reviewing the book. Neither the author nor the publisher reviewed this post prior to publication. All opinions are my own.
Yes, I think most people of a certain age can remember where they were when the wall came down. I also remember it when it first went up. There’s always something wrong with a society that builds walls to keep people in, instead of out.
When the wall came down, I was at an international conference in Brussels. The German delegation wept for much of the day. Wonderful day.