A Woman In Berlin: Summary and book reviews of A Woman In Berlin by Anonymous, plus links to an excerpt from A Woman In Berlin and a biography of Anonymous.
A Woman In Berlin
by Anonymous
Hardcover: Aug 2005,
288 pages.
Paperback: Jul 2006,
288 pages.
An astonishing find - the landmark journal of a
woman living though the Russian occupation of Berlin - which has already earned
comparisons to diaries by Etty Hillesum and Victor Klemperer
For six weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the
Russian army, a young woman, alone in the city, kept a daily record of her and
her neighbors' experiences, determined to describe the common lot of millions.
Purged of all self-pity but with laser-sharp observation and bracing humor, the
anonymous author conjures up a ravaged apartment building and its little group
of residents struggling to get by in the rubble without food, heat, or water.
Clear-eyed and unsentimental, she depicts her fellow Berliners in all their
humanity as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the
Russians. And with shocking and vivid detail, she tells of the shameful
indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject: the mass rape
suffered by all, regardless of age or infirmity. Through this ordeal, she
maintains her resilience, decency, and fierce will to come through her city's
trial, until normalcy and safety return.
At once an essential record and a work of great literature, A Woman in Berlin
not only reveals a true heroine, sure to join other enduring figures of the
twentieth century, but also gives voice to the rarely heard victims of war: the
women.
When A Woman in Berlin was first published anonymously in German (five years after an English language version was published in 1954) it was greeted with disgust by German audiences and quickly went out of print. The author was so shaken by the response that she would not allow her diary to be republished again until after her death. In 2003 it was republished in Germany to critical acclaim and more controversy, but also to a great deal more recognition, empathy and understanding. A retranslation was published in English in hardcover last year, and this month in paperback. (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Kirkus Reviews
Frank and affecting, a remarkable piece of war literature.
Library Journal
An important perspective on the tribulations facing ordinary Berliners during the siege and early occupation of their city by the Red Army.
Publisher's Weekly
The author.... has a fierce, uncompromising voice, and her book should become a classic of war literature.
New York Times
The book is graphic and unflinching, with the immediacy of all great diaries.
Booklist - Jay Freeman
This is a devastating and rare glimpse at ordinary people who struggle to survive.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Ghoti Fish The novel in a journal format The reader should be aware that this is a novel, that is a work of fiction. The novel which is told in a journal format.
Rated of 5
by E. Barham A woman in Berlin This is an extraordinary, unsentimental, beautifully written journal about Berlin at the end of the Second World War with the arrival of the Russian army
It is a factual account of the daily life of the the people,and in particular the women,... Read More
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