The Berlin Apartment
In August of 1961, Lise Bauer and Uli Neumann are happily planning to become engaged. Uli lives in West Berlin, a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany. And Lise lives in East Berlin, a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Germany. But Berliners are free to move around any part of the city for school, work, shopping and visiting. Lise attends medical school at a university in West Berlin. Then the barbed wire starts going up.
Uli tries frantically to help Lise escape before the two parts of the city are completely cut off from each other, but just barely fails.
Letters and phone calls are intercepted or bugged, and the barbed wire is gradually reinforced by a concrete wall. The only way Uli and Lise can communicate is via a school friend, Inge. Inge is a Swedish citizen and has access to both sides of Berlin.
Uli, Inge, and their school friends develop a daring plan to dig a tunnel under the wall and bring Lise and several other friends and family members over to West Berlin. But Lise is eight months pregnant. And her brother is an agent of Stasi, the feared East German police. The tragic events of the night of the tunnel escape will reverberate for the next twenty years.
Turnbull puts her readers in the place and time with vivid sensory and psychological detail. We feel the cold dampness of the tunnel as Uli and his friends are digging, the claustrophobia of escaping through the tunnel, and the oppressive burden of constantly being watched in East Berlin. This novel brings light to a little-explored place and time. Turnbull’s plot is tight, the action is well-paced, and the well-developed, nuanced characters face excruciating choices. Recommended.
