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Berlin
- Author
- Sinclair McKay
- Narrator
- Leighton Pugh
- Publisher
- Penguin Books Ltd
- Publish Date
- 26 May 2022
- Run Time
- 16 hours 47 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
Throughout the twentieth century, Berlin stood at the centre of a convulsing world. This history is often viewed as separate acts: the suffering of the First World War, the cosmopolitan city of science, culture and sexual freedom Berlin became, steep economic plunges, the rise of the Nazis, the destruction of the Second World War, the psychosis of genocide, and a city rent in two by competing ideologies. But people do not live their lives in fixed eras. An epoch ends, yet the people continue - or try to continue - much as they did before. Berlin tells the story of the city as seen through the eyes not of its rulers, but of those who walked its streets.
In this magisterial biography of a city and its inhabitants, bestselling historian Sinclair McKay sheds new light on well-known characters - from idealistic scientist Albert Einstein to Nazi architect Albert Speer - and draws on never-before-seen first-person accounts to introduce us to people of all walks of Berlin life. For example, we meet office worker Mechtild Evers, who in her efforts to escape an oncoming army runs into even more appalling jeopardy, and Reinhart Cruger, a 12-year-old boy in 1941 who witnesses with horror the Gestapo coming for each of his Jewish neighbours in turn.
How did those ideologies - fascism and communism - come to flower so fully here? And how did their repercussions continue to be felt throughout Europe and the West right up until that extraordinary night in the autumn of 1989 when the Wall - that final expression of totalitarian oppression - was at last breached? You cannot understand the twentieth century without understanding Berlin; and you cannot understand Berlin without understanding the experiences of its people. McKay's latest masterpiece shows us this hypnotic city as never before.
© Sinclair McKay 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
Critics Review
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I loved this book. McKay's writing is vivid and sometimes even beautiful . . . his own observations and summaries seem always apposite and wise . . . To anyone who knows Berlin a little and is fascinated by it, but would like to understand it better, this is a wonderful aid . . . Sinclair McKay was born to write this book
The Times
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Remarkable . . . A majestic work of non-fiction
Tortoise
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McKay has written a masterful account of a city marked by infamy. Supported by meticulous research, Berlin is by turns terrifying and fascinating. If there is a book that must be read this year, this is it
Amanda Foreman
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The book's principal subject is Berliners doomed role in the Second World War. Through their eyes, McKay brilliantly captures Germany's initial successes, and then the reverses and escalating defeats . . . To have uncovered so many previously unknown characters and fascinating anecdotes is especially admirable
Spectator
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I thought I knew everything about Berlin, but then I read this stunning book. It's eye-opening, enlightening and wonderfully told
Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed
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McKay's powerful imagery and magnetic prose combine to produce an electrifying new account of Berlin. 'You cannot understand the twentieth century without understanding Berlin', claims the author. He makes a compelling case
Julia Boyd, author of Travelers in the Third Reich
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Powerful. Visceral. Truly revelatory. Beautifully written and utterly compelling. I didn't think Sinclair McKay could top his previous book, Dresden, which was masterful. He has proven me wrong with Berlin
Damien Lewis, author of SAS Bravo Three Zero
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One of my favourite historians
Dan Snow, History Hit
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Great subject, well-researched, brilliantly written. Anyone who wants to understand Berlin's incomparable place at the very centre of twentieth century history should begin with Sinclair McKay's remarkable, mesmerising book
Keith Lowe, author of Savage Continent
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Powerful . . . there is rage in his ink. McKay's book grips by its passion and originality
Max Hastings, Sunday Times, on Dresden
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Sinclair McKay
- Narrator
- Leighton Pugh
- Duration
- 16 hours 47 minutes
- Release Date
- 26 May 2022
- ISBN
- 9780241997246
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Penguin Books Ltd
- Genre
- Second World War, Other warfare and defence issues, European history
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.Throughout the twentieth century, Berlin stood at the centre of a convulsing world. This history is often viewed as separate acts: the suffering of the First World War, the cosmopolitan city of science, culture and sexual freedom Berlin became, steep economic plunges, the rise of the Nazis, the destruction of the Second World War, the psychosis of genocide, and a city rent in two by competing ideologies. But people do not live their lives in fixed eras. An epoch ends, yet the people continue - or try to continue - much as they did before. Berlin tells the story of the city as seen through the eyes not of its rulers, but of those who walked its streets.In this magisterial biography of a city and its inhabitants, bestselling historian Sinclair McKay sheds new light on well-known characters - from idealistic scientist Albert Einstein to Nazi architect Albert Speer - and draws on never-before-seen first-person accounts to introduce us to people of all walks of Berlin life. For example, we meet office worker Mechtild Evers, who in her efforts to escape an oncoming army runs into even more appalling jeopardy, and Reinhart Cruger, a 12-year-old boy in 1941 who witnesses with horror the Gestapo coming for each of his Jewish neighbours in turn.How did those ideologies - fascism and communism - come to flower so fully here? And how did their repercussions continue to be felt throughout Europe and the West right up until that extraordinary night in the autumn of 1989 when the Wall - that final expression of totalitarian oppression - was at last breached? You cannot understand the twentieth century without understanding Berlin; and you cannot understand Berlin without understanding the experiences of its people. McKay's latest masterpiece shows us this hypnotic city as never before.© Sinclair McKay 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
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