A Woman In Berlin

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What to expect

Between April 20th and June 22nd of 1945 the anonymous author of A Woman in Berlin wrote about life within the falling city as it was sacked by the Russian Army. Fending off the boredom and deprivation of hiding, the author records her experiences, observations and meditations in this stark and vivid diary. Accounts of the bombing, the rapes, the rationing of food and the overwhelming terror of death are rendered in the dispassionate, though determinedly optimistic prose of a woman fighting for survival amidst the horror and inhumanity of war.

Critics Review

  • This is a devastating book. It is matter-of-fact, makes no attempt to score political points, does not attempt to solicit sympathy for its protagonist and yet is among the most chilling indictments of war I have ever read. Everybody, in particular every woman ought to read it

    Arundhati Roy
  • One of the most important personal accounts ever written about the effects of war and defeat

    Antony Beevor
  • This is not an hysterical woman … you simply cannot dismiss it … profoundly, acutely embarrassing … an insight into the resilience of people in an unknowable situation

    Robert Sandhill
  • Complex, closely observed diary by a woman living in conquered Berlin at the end of WWII

    Kirkus Reviews
  • Let Anonymous stand witness as she wished to: as an undistorted voice for all women in war and its aftermath, whatever their names or nation or ethnicity. Anywhere

    Los Angeles Times
  • An astonishing record of survival . . . the voice of Anonymous emerges as both shrewd and funny . . . a fresh contribution to the literature of war

    Entertainment Weekly

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