This book was challenging for me to read. . .the topic and period of history were dark and expose the evil within us. I, however, felt it was necessary to read and to understand this time period and the people it affected. As far as I know, I have not read any young adult books about Berlin and how the wall affected its people. Ms. Stamper also bravely ventures into the lives of the Germans who fought with Hitler. How did they process what they had done under his leadership? Should all Germans who followed the Nazis way be prosectued like Eichmann?
Ms. Stamper is an amazing author. She creates a credible story with a tight plot and well-developed characters woven with sobering history.
Rudi and Peter, fraternal twins, live in East Berlin with their father, mother, and great-grandmother. Both boys are dedicated to their Free German Youth to destroy fascism and to bring peace and utopia through socialism. When their parents divorce, Rudi lives with his father in West Berlin while Peter remains with their alcoholic, mentally unstable mother and his aging great-grandmother in East Berlin. Overnight a wall is built "to keep the facists out". After all, all the facists live in West Berlin. Soon the brothers realize how different they are in their views. Secrets about their parents' past reveal each of is capable of great evil. Who can they trust?
This review does not do justice for the complexity and artistic value in this book.
*Highly recommend for high schoolers and adults but see warnings. It is labeled as "young adult".
Warnings: swearing, violence, kissing, prejudice vs. Jews, capitalists, Blacks, Rudolf and Ilse are intimate before marriage and only marry when Ilse becomes pregnant with the twins, Ilse prostitutes herself to earn extra money before she is pregnant with the twins, Ilse is an alcoholic, it is hinted at that she is unfaithful in her marriage, divorce, Rudolf tries to commit suicide, the great-grandmother is a chain smoker, a lot of adults smoke
-Borrowed from the library.
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