Synopsis
A city divided.
When the Berlin Wall goes up, Karin is on the wrong side of the city. Overnight, she’s trapped under Soviet rule in unforgiving East Berlin and separated from her twin sister, Jutta.
Two sisters torn apart.
Karin and Jutta lead parallel lives for years, cut off by the Wall. But Karin finds one reason to keep going: Otto, the man who gives her hope, even amidst the brutal East German regime.
One impossible choice…
When Jutta finds a hidden way through the wall, the twins are reunited. But the Stasi have eyes everywhere, and soon Karin is faced with a terrible decision: to flee to the West and be with her sister, or sacrifice it all to follow her heart?
Review
The war is over, but the fight for survival has only just begun…
13th August 1961 Jutta Voigt is woken suddenly when the city she calls home, the city she loves is torn apart by the appearance of The Berlin Wall severing West Berlin from East Berlin, Jutta and others had been hearing rumours in recent weeks the newly erected wall is no longer just rumours rather an eyesore, that changes live forever. Jutta needs to find her way over the East side, her twin sister is over there trapped and unaware there is no safe way out and no way home.
Will Jutta be able to find a way to reunite with her sister? Making her family complete once again or will the pair have to learn to live divided?
All is not lost when Jutta discovers there is a way to gain access to East Berlin, aware of the dire consequences she and the rest of her family face, should she be discovered using the breach or being seen in the East you never know who or where the next Stasi informant is but the unbreakable bond, she shares with her twin Karin is stronger than any Government body or concrete wall combined. The sisters are reunited once again.
“What happens today amounts to a growth, a weed of the type that drives upwards through dirt, extracting oxygen from the air, just as the wire today sucked hope from an entire city and its people.” – Mandy Robotham The Girl Behind the Wall
Jutta and Karin soon realise fleeing back home to the West may not be as easy as Jutta had anticipated. Karin has an impossible choice to make, risk a journey back over to the East joining her family once again or stay and build on a life she has made for herself in the East?
Having read Author Mandy Robotham previous offerings, The German Midwife and The Berlin Girl I knew The Girl Behind the Wall would be worth adding to the shelf. Whilst I did really enjoy the overall plot especially in the conflict and resolution chapters I will say I found the opening chapters in this novel somewhat slower to immerse myself in. A worthy slow burn.
When it comes to the characters of The Girl Behind the Wall, I will say I found Jutta to be the standout even though the story is told using dual perspective between Jutta in West Berlin and Karin in the East, I felt Karin to be two dimensional even coming across at times as unlikeable.
Otto Kruger and Danny Strachan make for likeable minor characters, I also found I connected with Walter Simms Robotham has once again created minor characters this reader cared about.
“Just which side is the prison, and who are the prisoners?” -Mandy Robotham The Girl Behind the Wall
The Berlin Wall or events surrounding it was something I knew little about, so I was keen to see how the Author would shape fact around Fiction.
Mandy Robotham has done well to weave a story with family, sisterhood, love, loss, suspense, peril and ever-present anxiety, doing well to highlight the 28 years. 1961-1989 the people of Berlin whether living on the East or West side endured from beginning to end of this novel, this attention to detail is why I am rating The Girl Behind the Wall 5 stars.
Having finished this book, I find myself still asking myself why? As I am sure many before me have asked and will continue to ask that question when it comes to the wall in the future; I feel sadness for those who lived through those years in Berlin I am also in awe of the determination they showed, I am grateful this time period in History is physically at an end.
Calling all mature Historical Fiction fans and fans of Author Mandy Robotham. The Girl Behind the Wall is worth a read.
With continued thanks to Harper Collins for sending a copy to read and review.