Wow, I loved this book! From the start, I was hooked, the book continued to flow effortlessly drawing me deeper and deeper into it as I listened to it unfold. I wouldn't typically say that audio versions of a book enhance it beyond reading a copy, but for this one, it did! I enjoyed the vocal artist who gave life to this story, I felt like I was listening to the characters themselves as they told their story. I highly recommend this book. It's a part of history in our not so distant past that isn't terribly well known but is very important and enlightening. It really makes you think about how privileged many people are and take it for granted. It also sheds light on how there are still many others who live in such an oppressed and dangerous situations.

THE BERLIN LETTERS by Katherine Reay and read by Saskia Maarleveld, Ann Marie Gideon, & P. J. Ochlan was a story that took me into a place I vaguely remember hearing about and gave it life!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

When I first saw this title, I thought I had an inkling of what it might be about. All I really got right was the Berlin Wall was involved. I am so glad I was wrong, as I underestimated this story entirely.

Beginning at the onset of the divisions in Germany in the 1960's and traveling through time until the 1980's and to when the wall fell, this is a story of a family divided yet not lost. Luisa is working as a code breaker and feels stuck concentrating on WWII codes when she stumbles upon letters that her father wrote from East Germany. The confusing thing is that the letters appear to be current and she was told her parents both died when she was small. Luisa won't stop until she knows the truth, taking her back into East Germany and behind the iron curtain where she isn't sure what she will find or even if she can get back.

I really enjoyed the dual timeline/perspectives in this story. The 60's side from Haris was quite revelatory in how things progressed from the Russian side. The way it all came together was intense and I couldn't multitask at all! I was riveted by so many parts of this story. I had no idea how fast the Berlin Wall and it's wires went up. I had no idea how families were split and people were stuck with no recourse for months or years. Or decades.

I learned so much with this story, but it was so exciting to have the lessons wrapped up in a compelling story with action, family secrets, & heartbreak. I cannot wait to chat with @bookfriendsbookclub about this soon!

Thank you to @harpermusebooks & @netgalley for this fantastic audiobook that published on March 5th, so it is available now!

After reading The Berlin Letters, I am super intrigued with the Cold War era and I love how much this book expanded my understanding. I was truly fascinated the entire time I read this book. It just sucked me in and wow! I was so invested not wanting to stop reading, while also kind of wanting to go and google all about the fall of the Berlin Wall. I can’t even imagine what it was like for families like those represented in this story, where they were cut off from one another and lived in fear of being honest with how things really were.
One of my favorite things about this book was the letters themselves and all the intrigue and secret intelligence. I guess I just really like spy stories or those in the secret intelligence genre. It was so well crafted with the alternating points of view and points in time. I truly enjoyed this book and recommend it for fans of historical fiction.
I listened to the audiobook version and the narration was really good. It's a book that works well as an immersive read. I recommend the audiobook version and the paperback which is truly lovely.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a terrific novel! I was immediately pulled in by the first chapter and loved the dual POV throughout. Although I don't read a lot of historical fiction, I was impressed with how quickly I was wept back to this period of time. The author did a great job relating the reality of life in East Berlin as well as recounting the events that led to the opening of the Wall. The audiobook is well done and the tension of the story stays strong right up until the end. Thanks for the chance to read this--I'm definitely going to look into this author's backlist!

Get ready for a fast moving ride during the fall of the Berlin wall. book with history and intrigue. A CIA code breaker discovers a symbol from her childhood that leads her to family secrets in West/East Berlin. The rescue might not be 100%t believable, but go with the story and learn about the life and difficulties of living in East Berlin.

This is a great selection for a book club that loves history and intrigue.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher, Harper Muse for the audio.

This was a truly lovely read. The author did an excellent job of balancing the intrigue of solving a mystery with the complexities of family relationships. It is a fun read and I would recommend it to anyone regardless of whether they usually like historical fiction.

A historical fiction novel worth the read! An interesting and uniique story. This was refreshing and I never know if I’m going to be able to get into a historical fiction novel. Some are just too boring for me. This one is great, pleasantly surprised. Read it!

Title: The Berlin Letters
Author: Katherine Reay
Narrated by: Saskia Maaleveld, Anne Marie Gideon, P.J. Ochlan
Publisher: Harper Muse
Length: Approximately 11 hours and 48 minutes
Source: Audiobook review copy from NetGalley. Thank-you Harper Muse and Austenprose for the review copy of the physical book.

Do you like to send or receive letters? I love to send letters. My best friend and I still write letters to each other, although sometimes I am slow on getting my letters out!

The Berlin Letters is a compelling novel about the Cold War. In 1961, as the Berlin wall was going up, Monica Voekler threw her young daughter Luisa over the barbed wire to her parents on the west side. She was unable to cross herself. Luisa grew up in America, believing that that her parents died in a car accident. She works at the CIA cracking codes in secret. After her grandfather’s death, she finds a secret stash of letters from her father. Reading them, she discovers that her grandfather and father had been sending each other coded letters. Her father is still alive, and she will stop at nothing to rescue him.

My thoughts on this novel:
• The first chapter was gripping and pulled me right into the novel. I never thought about how sudden the wall went up and how families could be separated forever.

• This was a page turner and I kept wanting to read/listen to this book to find out how it would all end.

• The story kept me engaged throughout. I liked the narrative with the chapters alternating between Luisa in the present, and Haris (her father) in the past leading up to the present (1989).

• This story had everything – mystery, suspense, family drama, codes to crack, spies and even a bit of romance.

• The characters were all compelling and I particularly identified with Luisa and her story.

• I thought it was remarkably interesting to read about how the communists were very unhappy when John Paul II became the pope as they had spies in the Vatican before that time.

• Also interesting was a tidbit that the Soviet Union was on the verge of invading Poland until President Reagen was shot and the United States put itself on alert. The Soviets decided to back down at that point.

• I always find it so strange how different east and west Berlin were from each other. Haris has a time where he is walking the streets looking at buildings that were bombed out during World War II and how they still are not repaired after almost forty years. He thinks about how there are certain areas that tourists are allowed and how they are kept looking nice.

• Speaking of the present, I was a child of the eighties and felt old remembering the events of 1989 and 1990 in this historical fiction novel.

• As I have been doing with a lot of books this month, I started this one as a physical book and then switched to the audiobook as I have had a lot of driving time to listen to audiobooks. I really liked the different narrators in this book to narrate. I especially liked P.J. Ochlan’s accent as Haris Voekler.

• I enjoyed the author’s note at the end of the novel that detailed her research into this time period.

• There are also terrific book club discussion questions at the end of the book. I think this would provide a book club plenty of good tidbits to discuss at a group meeting.

• I would love to see this book made into a movie.

Overall, The Berlin Letters is a fascinating historical fiction book on the Cold War. The story of father and daughter, Haris and Luisa put a face on the heartbreak that so many people had to endure during that time period.

I really enjoyed this book. The dual pov and two narrators were such an enhancement to the experience. I don’t know much about this period of time in history so it was great to learn more. That’s for the chance to listen.

This book was such a unique historical fiction book - I have never read another one like it. It tells the story of a family from East Berlin who became separated by the wall, and their journey back to each other. Each detail seemed carefully researched, and I appreciated the author's clarification on where she bent the facts for fiction.

I really appreciated the deep insight into underground resistance in East Berlin. Watching his transformation over time and continued hope was really impactful, and it also showed how tenuous citizens of East Berlin felt when they couldn't trust anyone. As someone who didn't know much about this historical time prior to reading, I appreciate the look into how East Berlin was viewed from the inside AND the out, because I think the perspective of those who wanted to make Berlin better is important too. I also thought the punks who are his connections being the ones to smuggle her in was a nice touch.

The ending felt very quick, and I think the only thing that really left me confused was how she managed to walk into the station and just pay a guard after being on edge and hidden the rest of the time.

Overall 4.5/5 stars in my opinion, and I will definitely encourage people to read this as it is a unique historical fiction book (I've never read one about the Cold War).

Thank you to Harper Muse Audiobooks, NetGalley, and Katherine Reay for a complimentary Audiobook. All opinions written are my own.

I am old enough that I remember the Berlin wall coming down, but young enough that my memories are very vague and I did not really understand the implications of this historical event at that time. This is one of the few historical fictions books that I have read about the Cold War and the divide between East and West Germany, especially focusing on the harsh realities of life in the USSR for its citizens.

In the novel, Luisa is born in East Berlin, but given to her grandparents in West Berlin as an infant, and they later move to the U.S., where she grows up to become a CIA analyst. After the death of her grandfather, she discovers a secret code hidden in letters that her grandfather wrote to a man behind the Berlin Wall. Luisa using her training to decode the letters and discovers some shocking secrets about her family. This leads her on a dangerous mission to Germany to go undercover behind the Iron Curtain.

The first part of the novel was a bit slow for me, and I enjoyed it more when the pace picked up after Luisa arrived in Germany. Regardless, I found this to be a very well researched and interesting overview of The Cold War, and I would definitely recommend it to historical fiction fans who are eager to learn more about this time in history. I received audiobook and e-book versions to review, but I enjoyed the audiobook more, as I appreciated the authentic German accents to bring the characters to life. Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Harper Muse for this book to review!

I loved everything about this story! The Berlin Letters gives a very real sense of life under communism in East Berlin. It is told from two POVs over two timelines that intersect as the wall falls in 1989.

Horace Voekler is a believer in the DDR. Growing up in the turmoil of WWII he looks to the East in hopes of a new Germany that he fully wants to participate in. But his wife Monika does not see through the same rose-tinted glasses. She wakes one day to find a wall being erected between the East and West and she knows what that will mean for her family. In an act of desperation she throws her daughter Luisa over the barbed wire to her parents and freedom in the West. She returns home to Horace and for a while they face their new stark reality.

Luisa comes of age in America and through childhood games with her grandfather, finds passion for code breaking. Working with the CIA she stumbles upon a code signature she recognizes from her childhood. From there she finds old correspondence between her father, whom she thought was dead, and her grandfather all in code. Filtering through decades of messages she uncovers a powerful truth about her family and her father’s changing mindset.

This novel builds slowly but as Luisa makes the decision to go to East Berlin it picks up very quickly. By the end I was in tears and so happy for how it all came together. A fantastic historical read with only a few liberties taken. Really an astonishing story of survival and fortitude to see a new era ushered in.

The audio production was fantastic. Both narrators did a superb job and I appreciated Horace’s accent and the realness it brought to the story.

Highlights:
✨Dual Timelines & Dual POVs: Both the timeline and POVs aid the character development of Haris and Luisa while maintaining a riveting pace for the story. Personally, I liked Haris’s storyline a bit more since I enjoyed learning how the Wall came to be.
✨Historical Research: Reay’s research shines through the story. I remember the Berlin Wall coming down, but I didn't know much of the history before 1989. Reay paints the bleak, gray, hopeless reality of how quickly the wall was built, highlighting that it not only physically separated East Berlin from the rest of the world but also had a significant social and economic impact. I love that she includes how the punk scene in East Berlin propelled the resistance.
✨Espinoage Elements: I love the inclusion of code-breaking. Luisa, a trained CIA agent, unravels the secrets of her family's past. This mystery will surely excite any spy thriller lovers.

I paired the audiobook with the physical copy of the novel. All three narrators did an excellent job with their respective characters. However, since the book was so engaging and fast-paced, I found that my eyes read faster than my ears could listen. Usually, I listen to audiobooks at 1.5x speed, but in this case, I just had to know what happened next, so my eyes won the battle.

The Cold War. The CIA. Code breakers. The Wall. East Berlin. West Berlin. So much is riding on the job that the CIA code breakers do. They don't even officially exist. Which makes it so hard to keep from lying about their jobs and where they spend their time.
Luisa Voekler spend her days working on various codes from WWII. It can be dull, dry work until something exciting shows up. Like the letters another workers shows her that strikes a memory. And that memory grows, opening up old thoughts and memories and love and wounds within the family. But it draws Luisa in. Until the day she finds her grandfather's stash of letters that tie into the other letters from work. And then, it is full force forward, diving into the deep end, and pushing herself to the end of it, to understanding, and then into action.
This is an exciting story that will grab hold like the barbed wire of the first few days of the wall in Berlin, ripping open emotion and ideas and need. Once you are caught, you can't put it down. Flying through the story in just two days, I found myself wanting so hard for Luisa to find that happy ending that she is hoping for while fearing that she just might not. So much is against her in East Berlin. Yet, I could not stop until I knew. This is what historical fiction should be - teaching so much while telling a story so well that nothing else seems to matter until you know how it ends up.

I went it into this book with inflated expectations of loving it, and that set me up for disappointment. I did not like the main female character. She came across as selfish and I was uncomfortable with how she used people to meet her goals.

The book however, wasn’t only about her. I think the best part was how it portrayed life on the Eastern side of the Berlin Wall. You feel the horror of the wall going up overnight and the awful ways people changed. It gave the reader a picture of how precious freedom is I whole-heartedly applaud that.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse Audiobooks for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

Audiobook Note: There are several different narrators and some have very heavy accents which can be difficult to understand at times.

The Berlin Letters
By: Katherine Reay

Having been to Berlin after the wall fell, I found this novel absolutely fascinating and could feel the scenes about the wall and the people caught on the East. I was by the wall in 1991 and took a tour of what was previously behind the wall. The bullet holes, non-graffiti side that was desolate. Checkpoint Charlie was also talked about in this novel and I was able to this in person.

This Cold War thriller was absolutely detailed and full of scenes that will make you think about those times.

Luisa Voekler, a CIA cryptographer is decoding Third Reich from World War II. She recognizes a symbol from her childhood and things heat up.

Harriz Voeker, was an East German who was a reporter for Deutschland, for the Party’s paper and realizes things are happen that go against his believes. The Berlin Wall is erected and it separates him from his daughter. He has to find a way to communicate with his father-in-law to keep up with his daughter.

This story tugged at my heart as a mother and human. Captivating, compelling, emotional and detailed as we find out more about this family.

If you get a chance to take a tour, you find out about the many attempts of unique escapes and sadly about all the lives lost. When I was there I was able to research more about this life-changing war. Watching the wall come-down and hearing Reagan say “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” I have a piece of the wall as I used a chisel. Looking forward to meeting this author next week.

When Luisa Voekler, a German raised in the US, finds a familiar symbol on a letter she is decrypting for her job with the CIA, her world is turned upside down. Not only is her father, whom she has been told for most of her life was dead, actually alive, but he's locked up in an East German Stasi jail for his work against the regime. With help from friends gone but not forgotten, a Grandmother who has taken care of her her whole life, and a wealth of knowledge learned from her late grandfather, Luisa is on a mission to learn her real history and to save her father. Told from both Luisa and her father's viewpoints, we learn about what it was like being a family divided during the Cold War in Germany.

Reay is a new author for me, and I found myself very impressed with her writing style and storytelling. The dual narration helped this story cruise along at a pace that was perfect. A well-researched historical novel is hard to beat, and add in a historical era that not a lot of authors write about, and you have a fascinating journey into days past that is so engrossing you won't want to put it down. An absolutely fantastic read.

I’ve of course heard of the Berlin Wall. I’ve heard of its fall. I’ve seen pieces of it. I’ve heard of the way it divided family and friends. I heard of the oppression by the soviets. I heard courageous tales of people escaping. What I think I didn’t quite realize was how frustrating it would be to perhaps hope for a better rule under the Russians. To hope for a better life in a home and country you love. And then how heartbreaking it would be to see your hopes be unfulfilled. To be trapped in a place you want to be, ruled in a way that takes away the joy of your home country. Takes away your freedom. I loved how the characters in this book showed me they didn’t want to escape the wall to escape East Berlin, they wanted to stay. They wanted to be free to provide and think for themselves. To thrive in a place they loved.

In this novel the the main character, Luisa, works as a cryptologist for the CIA. When she comes across a symbol that she remembers seeing in her grandfather’s study, she begins to search her grandfather’s old things. After several clues, she discovers letters from her father. A father she can’t remember and no one talks about. The letters teach her about life in East Berlin, the love of her father, and many secrets her family has kept from her. I thoroughly enjoyed her journey of discovery.

I loved all the complicated relationships and how slowly uncovering the past helped the family members to process their trauma and understand each other better. One of my favorite parts is when the main character sees East Berlin and finally understands her grandparents more. It was a good reminder that we tend to see the world from our own vantage point and experiences. Others see very differently.

I listened to the audio of this book and loved the story as well as the narration.

The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay was a fast paced and riveting book. It was written in a duel time line and narrative. The characters were compelling and well developed and there were several twists and turns throughout the book. The Berlin Letters was well written and impeccably researched. It covered the years from when the Berlin Wall was first built through the years of the Cold War in a very believable manner. I listened to the audiobook that was very well narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, Ann Marie Gideon and P. J. Ochlan.


For several years before the concept of the Berlin Wall was implemented, many families began leaving East Berlin, choosing to live in West Berlin instead. Monika Voekler’s parents, Gertrude and Walther and her younger sister, Alice, had done just that. They had left East Berlin a few months prior to the wall being built. Even though the city of Berlin was divided into the American sector or West Berlin and the Democratic Sector of Berlin or East Berlin, it was easy enough to cross over into one or the other without any difficulty. Prior to her parents’ move to West Berlin, Monika had married Haris Voekler. Monika and Haris now had a three year old daughter named Luisa. Haris worked at the Party’s newspaper, the Neues Deutschland. He was considered a highly regarded reporter. Haris believed in the Party and supported them completely so he refused to follow Monika’s parents to West Berlin. Monika and Haris had a good life in East Berlin.

On the morning of August 13, 1961, everything changed. Haris got a phone call that morning that something was happening at Potsdamer Platz. He was told that an “anti-Fascist protection barrier” was being constructed and that he was expected to cover it and write about it for the evening edition of the newspaper. Monika, Haris and Luisa had plans to have lunch with Monika’s parents that day. Haris was unsure that he would be able to join them. Monika and Luisa went on their own. When Monika arrived at the border crossing she was surprised by what she saw. The crossing was heavily guarded and barbed wire had been installed. Monika was prohibited from entering West Berlin. She spotted her family and learned from her father that the Party had secured the border crossings because they saw it as “necessary to keep unsavory western influences away from their pure ideology“ and that it would not be coming down any time soon. In that instant, Monika made the most difficult decision of her life. Monika lifted Luisa high above her head and propelled her through the air into her father’s arms. She would never hold or be able to kiss her little daughter again. In the following days, Monika lived for the few moments she was able to see Luisa. Her parents brought Luisa to the wall everyday. Monika treasured those moments even though they were from a distance. She got as close to the wall as was allowed so she could see her daughter. Then word came to Monika that her parents, Alice and Luisa immigrated to America. Monika was beyond distraught and inconsolable.

Luisa grew up in America and was brought up by her grandparents. She was told that her parents had died in a car crash. Luisa was encouraged by her grandfather from early on in her life to help him solve puzzles and decipher codes he made up for her. It was no wonder, then, that Luisa trained to become a member of the CIA. After Luisa’s grandfather died, she found herself living with her grandmother. While going through some of her late grandfather’s things, Luisa discovered a stack of correspondence between her grandfather and her father. Luisa discovered that her father was still very much alive and still in East Berlin. What will Luisa do with this newly acquired information? Will she be able to discover a way to get her father out of East Berlin and be reacquainted with him after all these years of believing that he was dead?

The Berlin Letters alternated between Luisa’s and Haris’s narratives and alternated between the years of the 1960’s and the latter years of the 1980’s. It was a superb example of a parent’s heartbreaking sacrifice for the future welfare of their child and a child’s determination to rescue a parent they were denied of knowing. The Berlin Letters focused on family, choices, grooming and preparation for the future, secrets, lies, hope, resilience, bravery and courage. Be prepared for lots of espionage, a way of life that made my heart pound and lots of twists and turns along the way. I really enjoyed reading The Berlin Letters. It was a very telling book that disclosed much about the life that people in East Berlin led during the Cold War years. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Recorded Books for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading about this time period because I haven’t read many novels set during the Cold War. I enjoyed taking the time while reading to do some research about the Berlin Wall to better educate myself about the history behind this beautifully written story. Katherine Reay does an amazing job using the dual timeline, dual perspective to take us through the journey of Luisa breaking the code of the letters to discover not only secrets for the CIA but also the secrets of her past.

One of my favorite quotes from the books is “It’s funny how easily you can convince yourself that the people that you live with see the world like you do.” It really stuck with me because it is so true.

Specific to the audiobook:
I really enjoyed the narrator. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and sometimes it feels like the narrator is a robot just reading the book. Not in this book. I felt the emotion while they were reading. I loved the intentional pauses to that made you feel even more emotion. I was drawn more to the female narrator and I can’t say why but that by no means takes away from the performance of the other narrator. They were both great and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance.