Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both S

Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall, by Nina Willner, is both a heart-wrenching, inspiring true story of a family torn asunder by political repression and a clear-eyed, detailed history of the East German regime's forty-year reign. From the uncertainty and chaos in the wake of the Allied victory at the end of World War II to the building, strengthening, and deadly enforcing of the Berlin Wall; from the constant restriction of the people's rights to the joyous celebration at the restoration of a free society and the destruction of the Wall, we see both the big historical picture and the more intimate human one. World figures such as East German leader Erich Honecker, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev loom large, but so do the members of the family in question, who happen to be the author's grandmother, grandfather, mother (Hanna, who escapes East Germany, marries a U.S. Army intelligence officer and Holocaust survivor, and comes to America), aunts, uncles, and cousins. The story becomes even more personal when the author's brother Albert, born and raised in the U.S. like the author and the rest of her siblings, makes a typical 1970s college student's trip to Europe and manages, with a friend, to slip into the East for a brief visit with the family. The most exciting passages in the book, however, rivaled only by Hanna's heroic escape to the West, are when Ms. Willner herself, a pioneering female U.S. Army intelligence officer, sallies forth on spy missions in East Berlin, risking capture (and worse), evading those sent to tail her, and showing steely poise and resolve when confronted by armed and aggressive authorities. These scenes alternate, to great literary effect, with a chronicle of young cousin Cordula's progress in becoming a contender on East Germany's Olympic women's cycling team. The two cousins, one East German, one American, unwittingly strive toward their separate goals simultaneously, mere miles apart, a fact they only discover later after they meet. The reunion of Hanna and her family with the East German clan is indelibly moving, and a tribute to the courage and optimism of family members holding fast to their beliefs, keeping faith with one another, and remaining true to themselves. This book is an enlightening and ultimately uplifting work of nonfiction, well worth reading.

I was 11 when the Berlin Wall came down so the politics of how it was erected and policed were very hazy. This memoir made it all heartbreakingly clear. I found it extremely accessible and informative. My only criticism is that I would have liked to know a little more about the author’s own experience to compare it to that of her mother and grandmother. She may not have been at liberty to write about it. This is a thoroughly readable and interesting story of a family’s struggle for freedom amidst shifting political powers.

Seen from the perspectives of members of four generations, this captivating memoir of a family torn apart by the division of Germany after WWII had me riveted from the first page to the last. I read it in two sittings, and I had to wipe splashes of tears off my glasses over and over again.Reading history can be a dispassionate experience, particularly when done from a safe distance of time or geography. But to bear witness to the irreparable wounds inflicted upon innocent people provides a context from which there is no escape without empathy.I knew very little about the circumstances around the breakup of Germany after the war, but now I am motivated to learn more. This book was a moving reminder of the power of a story well told.This is not the work of a novelist or wordcrafter. This is a sparsely told story of perseverance, bravery, and the impact of a soul-crushing emasculation of an entire country at the hands of criminal despots allowed to rule without accountability.

Von einem Freund empfohlen bekommen, enttäuscht dieses Buch nicht. Gut geschrieben.

Forty Autumns inspires by celebrating the survival of familial love and intellectual spirit over forty years and the oppression of a totalitarian regime. In telling the story of her family Nina Willner provides fascinating insight into the intimacies and courage of daily life on both sides of the Iron Curtain by those most personally affected. I read Forty Autumns shortly after returning from a first trip to Berlin. Familiarity with the locale is certainly not necessary to enjoy this book but the insight into how people and families have come together, having appeared at one time so firmly divided, is an important message for modern times. In reading it is difficult not to be stirred by the incomprehensibility of intrusive state control of family life nor moved by the power of love in the joy of reunification.