The Berlin Letters: A Cold War Novel
"Fans of codebreakers, spies, and Cold War dramas will be entrapped by Reay's tale of courage, love, and honor set against the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall." - Booklist Starred Review
Bestselling author Katherine Reay returns with an unforgettable tale of the Cold War and a CIA code breaker who risks everything to free her father from an East German prison.
From the time she was a young girl, Luisa Voekler has loved solving puzzles and cracking codes. Brilliant and logical, she's expected to quickly climb the career ladder at the CIA. But while her coworkers have moved on to thrilling Cold War assignments--especially in the exhilarating era of the late 1980s--Luisa's work remains stuck in the past decoding messages from World War II.
Journalist Haris Voekler grew up a proud East Berliner. But as his eyes open to the realities of postwar East Germany, he realizes that the Soviet promises of a better future are not coming to fruition. After the Berlin Wall goes up, Haris finds himself separated from his young daughter and all alone after his wife dies. There's only one way to reach his family--by sending coded letters to his father-in-law who lives on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
When Luisa Voekler discovers a secret cache of letters written by the father she has long presumed dead, she learns the truth about her grandfather's work, her father's identity, and why she has never progressed in her career. With little more than a rudimentary plan and hope, she journeys to Berlin and risks everything to free her father and get him out of East Berlin alive.
As Luisa and Haris take turns telling their stories, events speed toward one of the twentieth century's most dramatic moments--the fall of the Berlin Wall and that night's promise of freedom, truth, and reconciliation for those who lived, for twenty-eight years, behind the bleak shadow of the Iron Curtain's most iconic symbol.
- A Cold War novel that takes readers to the heart of Berlin to witness both the early and final days of the Berlin Wall
- Stand-alone novel
- Book length: approximately 107,000 words
- Includes discussion questions for book clubs
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Community Reviews
In-depth book review: https://cantinabookclub.com/review/the-berlin-letters-by-katherine-reay
Podcast interview with Katherine Reay:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-34-katherine-reay-the-berlin-letters/id1716042267?i=1000658605978
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ecmmrFjQJ34V0aPZuoduq?si=919f30bd79f64c7e
YouTube: https://youtu.be/W7mci2-3HHU?si=dK2OFDYnb5OCwrlv
Reay excels at capturing the chaos and confusion swirling around the big, squat, ugly, gray Berlin in the final years of the Cold War. Through Luisa’s eyes, the readers experience the bizarre juxtaposition of the Western capitalist and Eastern communist societies seated side-by-side, separated only by an artificial border. The stories of Luisa and her father under Stasi’s imprisonment are woven together skillfully, building suspense as his health deteriorates. Luisa races to navigate the complex ties of spies and smugglers on both sides of the wall to reach him.
The Berlin Letters succeeds as both a gripping thriller and a heartfelt story of a family torn apart by secrecy and political turmoil. Reay’s extensive historical research shows as she vividly reconstructs the covert wheeling and dealing behind the Iron Curtain while also maintaining an emotional core focused on reconciliation and second chances. As the wall crumbles around her characters, so do the barriers that keep Luisa from her father.
It’s a very satisfying and fascinating glimpse at an iconic historical moment through the eyes of a family that embodies its complex legacy. This was definitely out of my normal genre of reading, however, I did enjoy reading it. I recommend this book to all historical fiction lovers.
Thank you to Angela Melamud, and Katherine Reay for allowing me to read and review this book.
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