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West of the Wall by Marcia Preston (view source)
Revision as of 16:10, 29 August 2020
, 16:10, 29 August 2020no edit summary
I love reading a book that makes me want to find out more about a time and a place – and this is such a book. It's a story of a city divided in two by the building of a wall that physically separated families and friends: an account of the suffering and despair of East Berliners under strict communist occupation and the desperate choices one woman had to make.
Set initially in the early 1960's we are introduced to Trudy and Rolf Hulst. Following the building of the Berlin Wall young Rolf becomes a political dissident running an underground organisation helping people to escape to the West. Eventually , his organisation is identified and he too has to flee. Trudy is left living with her aging ageing mother-in-law to bring up a small baby, Stefan, not knowing whether Rolf made it safely to the west.
Life is grey and harsh in Communist East Berlin and Marcia Preston effectively draws the reader into the drudgery of Trudy's daily routines. Soon she learns through an old friend, Wolfgang Kruger, that, as the wife of a defector, she is in danger of being brought in for questioning by the Stasi. Faced with possible imprisonment, torture or worse Trudy reluctantly takes up an offer of help to escape to the west. Tragically she is unable to take Stefan with her – a heart-wrenching decision for any woman.