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| Original Title: | Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall |
| ISBN: | 0062410334 (ISBN13: 9780062410337) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Berlin(Germany) East Germany |
Nina Willner
ebook | Pages: 416 pages Rating: 4.35 | 5143 Users | 812 Reviews
Relation Supposing Books Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family—of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall.Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom—leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home—was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own.
Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna’s daughter, Nina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives—grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin, Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team—a bitter political war kept them apart.
In Forty Autumns, Nina recounts her family’s story—five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer, running secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk.
A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation, and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love—of five women whose spirits could not be broken, and who fought to preserve what matters most: family.
Forty Autumns is illustrated with dozens of black-and-white and color photographs.
Point Out Of Books Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
| Title | : | Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall |
| Author | : | Nina Willner |
| Book Format | : | ebook |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 416 pages |
| Published | : | October 4th 2016 by William Morrow |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Autobiography. Memoir. Cultural. Germany. Biography |
Rating Out Of Books Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
Ratings: 4.35 From 5143 Users | 812 ReviewsJudgment Out Of Books Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
I don't remember the beginning if the Cold War; I was very young, but I vividly remember the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. Thus, I found this novel intriguing. I cant imagine a forty year separation from family, or the confusion they felt not knowing if freedom was truly at hand or if it was all a political ruse to expose those unfaithful to the regime. Oma, the glue that held the family together and kept everyone going. I could never have fared so well. Opa, who finally broke from theLooking back, one of the best books I read in 2018.An extraordinary family history, superimposed upon one of the most profound historical anomalies (a divided Germany), well researched and beautifully told, all seamlessly combining and contrasting the warmth of one sister's hand in another's with the icy, relentless sweep of strident communism and the mind-numbing repression exerted throughout East Germany throughout the Cold War. So much ground covered, so many lives lived and intertwined and
" Our story started when one war ended and another began" Every now and then a book comes along that ticks all the boxes for me and Forty Autumns was everything I love in a book. A beautifully written memoir that is historically informative and a moving story of courage and estrangement. Nina Willner seamlessly weaves a narrative history of her family torn apart by a divided Germany and Berlin, separated by the Iron Curtain for forty years we learn of their struggles, trials and reunions.The
This book is really interesting because it focuses mostly on actual East Germany, not just East Berlin, which never seems to happen. I learned a lot about parts of Germany I had never heard of. The author is ex-military from a military family, so it has a big bias but she even mentions that this is her story, and everyone's story is different. I appreciated that even if she gives Ronald Reagan way too much credit. It was also cool to read about a woman leading these spy missions during a time
"What will become of a country when a mother cannot even trust her own children, and they, in turn cannot trust their own families?"Oma Apart from a documentary I saw a few years ago about East Germany doping innocent athletes in the 80s, I knew relatively nothing about East Germany or about how the infamous wall came into existence. This book was so enlightening! On quite a few occasions I was moved to tears at the utter waste associated with the 40 year regime. Overnight freedom didn't
I almost didn't read this one, almost. It was due back at the library and quite lengthy, didn't know if I could fit it in, but three of my trusted friends on here rated it highly, so I thought I would just start it and see if I connected with the story. Obviously I did, finished in a few days, and was so glad I opened the cover.I was so young, during the Cold War, remember the fear of my parents, vaguely remember duck and cover, do vividly remember the air raids sirens and having to leave my
Although Nina Willner's Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall has been enlightening and informative (for even with my German background and knowing the basics of what transpired in East Germany, in the the GDR post WWII until its collapse in 1989, I certainly did not know all that many specific details about the day to day lives of the East Germans as individuals, of them as actual living people with families, friends, with hopes, desires,
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