The Berlin Apartment

De: Bryn Turnbull

Narrado por: Mary Jane Wells

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?

©2024 Bryn Turnbull (P)2024 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

and the Berlin |Wall came down

Different kind of historical fiction for me as I was alive during the timespan covered by the book.

When choosing this book to listen to, you know it's a story about a divided Berlin and the people caught up in it. The story begins with the separation of two young people in love and their quest to get back together via a tunnel. For a good part of the early part of the book everything seems to be going to plan, and it seems they will be reunited. I thought to myself, though, that an author has to create some conflict in a book and the author did just that. There were many trials and tribulations all involved had to suffer through as the story unfolds. But you do get a good feel for how many of the people, on both sides of the wall, had to feel as they lived their lives in a city divided by a wall.

It was different for me having lived while the wall existed. I was actually in the US Army and stationed in West Germany (Bad Kreuznach) in 1974 and 1975., while the wall was up. I was in a Military Customs unit, and we had a detachment in West Berlin so while not stationed there myself I knew fellow soldiers who were. It was good duty in both West Berlin and West Germany, but you knew the big, bad Soviet Union was just to the east.

I traveled to Berlin twice, once as a student after the army while the wall was still up. As a group we went into East Berlin for a day. It seemed pretty bleak as I remember. Not that bad but you knew you didn't want to get stuck there. Then later my wife and I traveled to Berlin after the wall had come down. We took the tour, went past Checkpoint Charlie, saw the sites in the reunited city. We came away feeling that Berlin was a vibrant city, World War II set it back many years. We left with a belief that we would like to go back after a significant number of years had passed to see how Berlin was again becoming a vibrant city taking its place on the world stage. Haven't made it back for that yet but there's still time.

Enjoyed the listen a lot.

A most depressing book

I like to read a book which entertains through language or story or emotions. This book is filled with anxiety and sadness. I would have quit reading it, but it was a bookclub choice so I persevered, a mistake. It could have been told in 200 fewer pages. The author gives an excess of silly examples whenever she is trying to make a point. Don't waste your time or money on this book.