Truth can be stranger – and more fascinating – than fiction. Anna Funder tells extraordinary stories from the underbelly of the most perfected surveillance state of all time, the former East Germany.
Funder meets Miriam, the sixteen-year-old who might have started World War III. She visits the regime's cartographer, obsessed to this day with the Berlin Wall, then gets drunk with the legendary 'Mik Jegger' of the east, once declared by the authorities 'no longer to exist'. And she finds spies and Stasi men, still loyal to the Firm as they wait for the next revolution.
Stasiland is a lyrical, at times funny account of the courage some people found to withstand the dictatorship, and the consequences for those who collaborated. Funder explores the daily chaos and harsh beauty of Berlin, a place where some people are trying to remember, and others just as hard to forget.
Stasiland is a brilliant debut by a prodigiously gifted writer.
About the Author
Anna Funder is the author of the international bestseller Stasiland, which won the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize and was published in 20 countries and translated into 16 languages. She is the recipient of numerous awards, and a former DAAD and Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. Anna Funder grew up in Melbourne and Paris and lives in Sydney with her husband and family.
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Comments about Stasiland:
Stasiland is an absolutely outstanding literary work. It redefines non-fiction writing. The author's depth of understanding of her subject, her capacity to convey striking messages to her reader and her reportage of history are brilliant.
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"An appealing blend of investigative and reflective reporting, with the narrative drive of powerful human-interest stories. . . . There is no denying Funder's journalistic talents."
ISBN: 9781877008917
ISBN-10: 1877008915
Audience:
General
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 304
Published: 5th December 2003
Dimensions (cm): 20.0 x 13.0