📚Book Tour Book Club Review 📚
Title: The Berlin Letters
Author: Katherine Reay
Publisher: Harper Muse
Genre: Historical Fiction
Thank you to @tlcbooktours + @harpermuse + @katherinereay for the #gifted copy and having me along on this book tour! I’m so excited to share my thoughts on The Berlin Letters.
I read this book at the end of February and while I was reading it, I kept messaging my book bestie @mommaleighellensbooknook and told her “This book is amazing . . . I think we should pick it for book club”. I was just that captivated and from the very beginning. @bookfriendsbookclub will be chatting then zooming with Katherine on Sunday, April 7th if you would like to join us. All are welcome!
The Berlin Letters is a CIA Cold War Novel and gives the reader a front row seat of the very days when the Berlin Wall went up and the Berlin wall came down. I think everyone remembers the famous phrase: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”, but few probably know that the Berlin wall literally went up over night! Through the eyes of the Voekler family we go on a journey of the separation of East and West Berlin and more.
“I have found over the years that I fare better being surprised by hope rather than being fooled by reality.”
Luisa Voekler always had a knack for puzzles and cracking codes, so it was no surprise that she joined the ranks of the CIA. Her latest assignment is decoding messages from WWII. Which is fine, but she is can never figure out why her career has stalled and all of her coworkers have moved on to Cold War assignments.
Haris Voekler is a journalist and proud East Berliner confident in the Soviet promises. However, once the wall goes up, his wife passes away, and he is without his daughter, things start to get a little muddy and he is less confident of those promises coming to fruition. His only answer is to start sending coded letters to his FIL on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
“But I now am no longer simply conveying the story; I am trying to change the story. Like those mottos these young kids say,I refuse to die in the waiting room of the future.”
Captivating. Demands your attention. Educating.
The parts about the Stasi, Reay absolutely nailed the tension. I could feel the fear of these characters. It leaps off the page; I literally had chills. Highly, Highly recommend this book!
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