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?
This book was a roller coaster and a history lesson. Now this will date me but I was a child when the wall came down and I live in Canada so living through it's tumult wasn't something I experienced. History in school doesn't completely cover it, only touches on it and as a teenager lets face it, do any of us truly or fully comprehend or understand the effects something like this would have of people or nations? Reading this book has prompted me to look further into it and read more about it. Horrible and life altering aren't even the best words to describe it. But this book does a very good job in capturing the helpless, trapped and stuck between a rock and a hard place decisions that some had to make in those years. This book is heartbreaking and had me aghast at some of the decisions Lise made but finishing the book and reading up on the history, I am beginning to understand that East Berliners had no choices. No freedom. No chance to decide anything and had to live in conformity to where they ended up.
Would 1000% recommend but it's an emotional roller coster so buckle up.
