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A review by gregrace
The Girl Behind the Wall by Mandy Robotham
2.0
rating: 2.5
Twins Jutta and Karin wake up on 13th August 1961 and find themselves on different sides of a divided Berlin. A fortuitous event has kept Karin in the East and now that a barrier has been erected to physically split the city in two, the sisters do not know when and how they will be reunited.
I had great expectations for this book but it actually proved hard for me to be really enthusiastic about the story.
The style felt hasty and superficial and made it difficult for me to connect with the characters and the events. Curiosity to see how the plot was going to develop, however, pushed me to slowly read on. Once I reached 60% of the volume, the story became more enthralling and I was finally able to empathise with the characters' fears and feelings of being under constant scrutiny and observation.
Although not the read I was hoping for, the second part of the book managed to transport me into a part of history I knew of mainly from visiting Berlin in person. I still do not comprehend how the Wall managed to stay in place for more than two decades, separating families and ending lives the way it did. When I visited Berlin, I was amazed by the city's resilience and how it managed to be reborn from its painful past, using it to educate people. Today, however, I still feel discouraged realising that what it is considered the past for one country, is also the current reality for many others.
Twins Jutta and Karin wake up on 13th August 1961 and find themselves on different sides of a divided Berlin. A fortuitous event has kept Karin in the East and now that a barrier has been erected to physically split the city in two, the sisters do not know when and how they will be reunited.
I had great expectations for this book but it actually proved hard for me to be really enthusiastic about the story.
The style felt hasty and superficial and made it difficult for me to connect with the characters and the events. Curiosity to see how the plot was going to develop, however, pushed me to slowly read on. Once I reached 60% of the volume, the story became more enthralling and I was finally able to empathise with the characters' fears and feelings of being under constant scrutiny and observation.
Although not the read I was hoping for, the second part of the book managed to transport me into a part of history I knew of mainly from visiting Berlin in person. I still do not comprehend how the Wall managed to stay in place for more than two decades, separating families and ending lives the way it did. When I visited Berlin, I was amazed by the city's resilience and how it managed to be reborn from its painful past, using it to educate people. Today, however, I still feel discouraged realising that what it is considered the past for one country, is also the current reality for many others.