Scan barcode
A review by english_lady03
The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay
4.0
The Berlin Letters is a beautiful story about a family who were torn apart by the Cold War. The most infamous symbol of the Cold War was the Berlin Wall which features prominently in this story from the time it went up until it finally came down. It was, in Katherine Raey’s usual style very well-researched and incorporated family drama with major events.
Haris is willing to do anything to protect his daughter: even if it means spending the rest of his life in prison. Nearly 30 years later Luisa will do anything to find the father she never knew and believed was dead. It is a story about lies, political extremism and idealism, oppression - and the power of love to overcome all. Some of the most tumultuous events come into it.
One little detail I enjoyed about this novel was the quite unexpected reference to my favourite movie, Henry V, starring Kenneth Branagh which was released the same year that the Berlin Wall came down. Love the way that the protagonist responded to in the same way as I do. Especially to the famous St Crispin’s Day speech.
What I find most profound and frightening about Cold War era novels as that none of this happened very long ago. Within my own lifetime there were places in Europe where a person could be tortured and imprisoned by the State for decades simply for having the “wrong” beliefs, reading the “wrong” material or questioning the political classes. If anything makes you value your freedom more, it should be the realization of how fragile it is and how many people very recently had to fight so hard to obtain and defend it.
I listened to the audiobook from Netgalley, which had two different narrators. Some people don’t care for nor than one narrator, but I think it worked very well for the parts narrated at different times by Luisa and her father.
Thanks to Harper Muse for approving me for this title. All opinions provided are freely given and my own.
Haris is willing to do anything to protect his daughter: even if it means spending the rest of his life in prison. Nearly 30 years later Luisa will do anything to find the father she never knew and believed was dead. It is a story about lies, political extremism and idealism, oppression - and the power of love to overcome all. Some of the most tumultuous events come into it.
One little detail I enjoyed about this novel was the quite unexpected reference to my favourite movie, Henry V, starring Kenneth Branagh which was released the same year that the Berlin Wall came down. Love the way that the protagonist responded to in the same way as I do. Especially to the famous St Crispin’s Day speech.
What I find most profound and frightening about Cold War era novels as that none of this happened very long ago. Within my own lifetime there were places in Europe where a person could be tortured and imprisoned by the State for decades simply for having the “wrong” beliefs, reading the “wrong” material or questioning the political classes. If anything makes you value your freedom more, it should be the realization of how fragile it is and how many people very recently had to fight so hard to obtain and defend it.
I listened to the audiobook from Netgalley, which had two different narrators. Some people don’t care for nor than one narrator, but I think it worked very well for the parts narrated at different times by Luisa and her father.
Thanks to Harper Muse for approving me for this title. All opinions provided are freely given and my own.