The Berlin Apartment is a story of loss, desperation, restoration, and a wall to separate East and West Berlin.

The Berlin Apartment by Bryn Turnbull

Genre/Categories/Setting: Historical Fiction, Political Ideologies, Love Story, Berlin Wall (1960s-1980s), Germany (East and West Berlin)

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

My Summary of The Berlin Apartment:

Welcome to my stop on the Blog Tour for The Berlin Apartment. Thanks #NetGalley @HTP_Books @HarlequinBooks @MiraBooks for a complimentary e ARC of #TheBerlinApartment upon my request. All opinions are my own.

Uli Neumann and Lise Bauer are students when they fall in love. Lise commutes to the west side of Berlin from the east side to attend medical school and to see Uli who lives on the west side. Two days after their engagement, barbed wire is rolled across Berlin and the lovers are separated. As the Berlin Wall is erected, the prospect of escape is nearly impossible and only accomplished at the highest risk. Uli is desperate to get his fiance (and their unborn child) out of East Berlin and, with the help of friends, begins to build a tunnel and plan a daring rescue.

My Thoughts:

Lives Disrupted

Uli and lise are not the only individuals whose lives have been disrupted and interrupted by government actions. The erection of The Berlin Wall was a shocking turn of events that caught many families and couples off guard and unprepared. Who knew that a trip across town to attend class or a trip home to see your dad could result in a thirty-year separation or change the trajectory of your life? Can you imagine the horror, fear, and desperation of families who were separated?

This is the second book I’ve read about the Berlin Wall this year. You might also enjoy The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay which is another story of a family separated by the Wall. I wonder if this is the beginning of a trend away from WWII histfic?

Love Story

The Berlin Apartment is NOT a romance in my opinion. It’s a love story. What’s the difference? In a romance, the romance is the central focus. Without the romance, there is no story. Whereas, a love story can include a romance but the story is more than the romance and could stand alone without the romance. Have you thought about the difference between a romance and a love story?

While romance drives some of the plot, there is a lot more to this story than romance. We have political ideologies, rescue, living the life you are given and not the life you desire, loss of control over your life, living your best life in difficult circumstances, desperation, and grief. The important question about romance in this story is if love can survive a prolonged and stressful separation.

Two Ideologies

In The Berlin Apartment, we see what life was like under two ideologies: socialism and capitalism. Capitalism has its negatives, but government overreach is much more frightening to me.

Content Consideration: government controls, taking risks with dire consequences, interrogation and threats

Recommending The Berlin Apartment

If you want a non WWII hisfic read, The Berlin Apartment might interest you! I found it well-written and engaging from the first page with likable and determined characters and some suspense. Books clubs might find lots to discuss.

Related: The Berlin Letters

My Rating:  4.5  Stars (rounded to 5)

Meet the Author of The Berlin Apartment, Bryn Turnbull

Bryn Turnbull is a writer of historical fiction. Equipped with a master’s of letters in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews, a master’s of professional communication from Ryerson University and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from McGill University, Bryn focuses on finding stories of women lost within the cracks of the historical record. She lives in Toronto.

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QOTD:

Is this engaging histfic on your TBR?

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