This is a fascinating story of persistence and resilience. Anna, a high flying young coder in Berlin, suffers a spinal stroke and becomes tetraplegic. Whilst in hospital she meets Batul, a recent Syrian arrival who has found work as a cleaner in the hospital. This novel is the story of their friendship and their very different lives: both are adapting to events which have dramatically changed their lives, and both are redefining their identities. It addresses the problems with health care and the importance of advocating for oneself, keeping expectations high and navigating the expectations of those around us. It‘s also the story of enduring love, and asks how much we should conform to the beliefs that others have formed of our identity. If you want an optimistic novel that will open up the world of disability and the immigrant experience then pick this up. It’s very readable!

I will admit that I am a bit on the fence with this book. I think I need to let it digest some more before I am able to give a full in depth review and feedback but I will say that whilst it was certainly a unique and interesting read, I felt some slight stereotypes being placed on certain characters and I don't completely know how I feel about the way this book was written,

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this free ebook in exchange for an honest review. Wow! This is my first ARC in a while. I was in tears on my plane ride to Trinidad reading this novel. “Berlin” is beautiful. The exceptional writing and emotional depth is woven throughout this whole novel. When it debuts to the public in 2025, I know it is going to be a huge success. Be ready to laugh and cry. I am a big fan of character driven novels and Berlin is a prime example of the kind of character driven novel I love. I also thought the length of the book was perfect.

In Berlin by Eric Silberstein.

This is an unusual novel, centred on Anna a very astute software engineer and Batul, a young Syrian refugee who form a beautiful relationship in circumstances of extreme adversity.

Anna, in the peak of her life, suffers a devastating spinal column stroke, something that I’d not heard of before and a medical subject I found quite fascinating. Batul is working as a janitor in the hospital, whilst she applies for a place to continue her medical degree and improve her German. The degree of empathy and understanding Batul has for Anna, is unrivalled and they form a deep and tender connection early on, despite the profound obstacles and differences. I enjoyed the multicultural aspects and particularly enjoyed the account of Batul’s life in Syria and the historical reasons for her family seeking refuge in Germany.

There were a few twinges of ableism in the book, which made me a bit uncomfortable. There is no doubt that Anna’s characteristic determination put her better placed to make a more remarkable improvements, but I think there is always a bit of a danger in suggesting that determination is just what is takes to reduce disability. If only that was the case, I’m sure there would be a lot more ‘Annas’!

However, overall, it was a compelling read about love, cultural differences, faith, family, a little bit of politics, medical advancement and above all, hope.

Big thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

In Berlin by Eric Silberstein is a remarkable and layered novel that drew me in from the start. At its center is Anna Werner, a sharp software engineer whose life is upended by a sudden medical event. What follows isn’t a typical recovery narrative, but a thoughtful exploration of identity, dignity, and connection. Anna’s experience with her new physical limitations is portrayed with raw honesty, and it was refreshing to see her reclaim agency and rebuild her life on her own terms.

One of the novel’s strongest aspects is Anna’s relationship with Batul, a young Syrian woman who dreams of becoming a doctor. Their bond feels genuine and well-developed, shaped by cultural tension, trauma, and mutual trust. Watching their connection evolve was both emotional and rewarding.

However, the final chapters didn’t fully land for me. The love confession between Anna and Batul felt rushed and lacked the emotional depth the story had carefully built. Then there’s the abrupt time jump in the final chapter, which left me feeling disoriented. Suddenly, Anna has a family and an entirely new life, but the narrative offers little insight into how she got there.

Most disappointing was the choice to have Anna “miraculously” healed. After so much honest and affirming portrayal of living with a disability, this shift felt like a step backward. It sends the message that happiness or fulfillment only comes with being non-disabled, which undermines the strength and growth Anna demonstrated throughout the novel. I had hoped for a resolution that embraced her life as it was, rather than erasing a core part of her experience.

Young, healthy, athletic -- Anna has a position as a software engineer well respected by her team and co-workers, when she is felled by a stroke to the spine. No longer able to function, she is dependent on others for even her basic needs. When she meets Batul, a Syrian immigrant janitor who had been studying medicine in Aleppo before fleeing the Assad regime, they find in one other both solace and assistance. Batul herself is torn between her traditional muslim values and her desire for learning. What Silberstein has accomplished is creation of two believable characters with unusual problems that resonate with today's world, complicated and enlightening. It could have done with a little less repetition, but overall was fascinating reading.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. This book had a lot of potential. I enjoyed getting to know the characters but the storyline just seemed to be very unrealistic at about the halfway point and didn’t recover for me.

I found this book to be interesting and thought provoking. Anna was so positive in the face of diversity and I found myself rooting for her throughout the story. Her relationship with Batul was beautiful and also a big challenge based on their religious and ethnic backgrounds. I found the jumpy timeline a bit confusing however. One moment they are together and talking, and in the next paragraph one of them is reliving something from the past only to jump back to the present. I also found it jarring to skip over her relationship with Erika despite the fact that they had 2 children together.

Anna is a young software engineer, living an active life in Berlin. She loves to run, she has a girlfriend who shares her active lifestyle, and her life is good. Until, one day, it isn’t. A rare spinal stroke leaves her entirely vulnerable in hospital.

Batul is a recent immigrant to Berlin from Aleppo in Syria, where she witnessed unimaginable suffering. She is resigned to the fact that she may never realise her dream of continuing her studies in Germany and becoming a doctor, as had been her plan in Syria; for one thing, she barely speaks German. But as a foot in the door, she takes a job as a cleaner at a hospital.

It’s the hospital where Anna is learning to adjust to her new life with paralysis, and one day the two women meet. The meeting will change the course of both of their lives, and eventually, in the future, the course of history.

I really enjoyed reading Anna’s and Batul’s contrasting yet interwoven stories. I thought the attention to detail in relation to spinal injury enhanced the book, but the attention to detail in relation to Anna’s life as a programmer did take me out of the story at times. Someone more computer literate than me might have gained more from the coding details, but I found them slightly jarring - I don’t think they were needed to convey the office politics or Anna’s passion for her work. Having said that, a similar level of medical detail didn’t feel extraneous.

I thought that the topic of Batul’s Islam faith was handled sensitively and realistically, and the intersection of her beliefs with Anna’s values as a gay woman was also portrayed very well. I wondered as I read if the depiction of asylum seeking in Germany was overly idealistic - some casual day to day racism aside, Berlin felt at times like almost a utopian haven for Batul and her friends and relatives, and I’m not sure this is entirely true to historical fact (although as a Brit I can’t obviously speak to the experience of the attitude of Berliners to asylum seekers). Certainly the grind of upholding a professional career in a new country was well detailed and Batul’s struggle to learn a new language as well as maintain her education felt very real.

I found this book gripping and immersive and I would recommend it highly. I’m grateful to Netgalley for the chance to read it before publication.

This story, which should have been emotional and deeply felt, read more like a tech manual in places, and in others like a (not very good) YA novel. The timeline is all over the place, and on top of that the author is trying to touch on too many topics - the paralysis alone is a big one, with the emotional and psychological shifts entailed in moving forward from such a devastating event - but for me, there was a curious lack of emotion present, and the sections where Anna imagines what she’d like to happen in certain instances just feels clumsy and oddly childish. Add to that a lesbian love story complicated by a religious and cultural obstacle which also felt clumsily written, plus political issues as background, and the tossing around of technical jargon, it was a struggle to find any real connection to the any of the characters. Thank you to NetGalley for this review copy, but this one fell a bit short, in my opinion.

The characters were flawed - in good ways and ways that felt wrong, as in "does the author really understand what it is like to be (a) female (b) female in a tech-bro job (c) female in the tach-bro job who is a lesbian (d) female in a tech-bro job who is lesbian and suddenly paralyzed? I won't even get into being female and muslim. So the characters felt flat, gender and racially stereotyped and shallow.

I longly hesitated on whether I should give this book three stars or four. Consider it a 3,5 rounded up, because I still think it is worth the read.

Let’s start with the good things, shall we?

First of all, this is a very fast read. Not in the sense that it is short or lacks depth and complexity, not at all. In fact, it is a pretty thought-provoking book. I mean fast in the sense that I couldn’t put it down for a second. The characters and their story cling to your brain and soul and you can’t shake them off, so you keep turning pages. One more chapter often turned into one more part for me. I was too invested to stop myself from reading.

That’s also partly thanks to the author’s amazing writing skills : I was inside the book, smelling what there was to smell, seeing what there was to see, tasting what there was to taste. That extends to the character’s emotions too. I felt Anna’s frustration at being trapped in a bed talking to people who didn’t want to hear a word of what she had to say, felt Batul’s drive to be a doctor and her fear at being unable to, and so on and so forth.

I loved Anna and Batul’s relationship from the first time they met. They felt like a breath of fresh air in each other’s perspectives and they both wanted the best for the other, which sounds like the bare minimum, but I feel like it’s so rare to find relationships that are truly mutually beneficial and altruistic in media. Their discussions showed how interested they were in what their friend (and more) had to say.

Those conversations often contained political references, software vocabulary and medical jargon, but they were not off putting in the slightest, as they were well explained and necessary to the progress of the story, in my opinion.

All of these things are why this was at least a four-stars read for me, up until the ending.

To me, the huge time jump didn’t make any sense. I didn’t recognise Anna anymore and the sudden science fiction made me wrinkle my nose. It’s a genre I love, just not when I’m thrown into it by force. It all felt very idealistic too, especially considering the rest of the book. Why perpetuate the idea that people with disabilities cannot be truly happy?

Although maybe I’m just bitter, this didn’t feel like a resolution. A shame for what I hoped I could rate five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This was a consistent 3-star read for me throughout.

The plot/storyline was interesting and contained a multitude of layers that added to its complexity; however, something was lacking for me throughout the novel that I cannot fully touch upon. Throughout I felt quite lost or disconnected from both the plot and characters due to this, which made it hard to get through at times.

This book did give a great deal of insight into the medical industry as well as the lives of those with paralysis and the challenges they face on a daily basis and really changed my perspective on life and taking things for granted. Anna, despite her hardships, remained a positive light throughout and made it easy for me to empathise with her.

However, as I read the last few parts, particularly the last couple of chapters, it felt quite rushed and muddled, mainly due to the time jumps that felt a tad unnecessary to me, taking away the momentum of the overall plot.

Despite this, thank you to netgalley and the author for providing me with the opportunity of reading this ARC, I am very grateful.

I liked this book quite a lot. The characters were interesting and the story compelled me to keep reading.
I felt like I learned a lot about the medical aspect of what Anna was going through. She really had a positive outlook and you couldn't help but feel compassion for her unfortunate circumstance.
As I read, the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book was surely a four-star read. I'm tempted to take off half a star (as if I could) because for me it became muddled and lost momentum towards the end.
Overall a good and uplifting story that I would recommend.
Thank you to the author and to netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

3 star read until 75% in and then it moved to a 4 star for me.

Anna is a healthy young 20something working in tech when she has an unexpected stroke that leaves her partially paralyzed. While in the hospital she meets Batul, a Syrian immigrant, who is a med student who has temporarily taken a job as a hospital janitor while she gets her feet under her in Berlin. This book follows their relationship and shifting life circumstances.

It’s an interesting story with many layers. But it lacked in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. It lacked…heart? Authenticity? There was often a disconnect I can’t find a good way to describe. The content was there but it lacked the hook. The way time passed in this book may have something to do with it. There was a lot of telling readers vs showing them…and it left me not feeling connected to the plot and characters at times.

I loved Batul instantly and throughout. Anna waxed and waned for me. It took a while for her to grow on me. I often wished the romantic relationships had stayed platonic. But I get why they didn’t. The end elevated this book for me. I’ll round it up to four stars.

Thanks to NetGalley & Liu Book Group for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first read for NetGalley, and wow - what a way to start.
This is a deeply thought-provoking and incredibly sensitive novel about the day to day realities of living with a catastrophic spinal injury - but it embraces so much more.
Silberstein's depiction of the growing relationship between Anna and Batul, the two young women who are centre-stage, and the complications that their disparate lives bring to their relationship, is written with a depth of empathy that surprised me - I double checked to make sure that it was in fact written by a man, not a woman.
His research got deep into the weeds of spinal injury, recovery and long-term spinal studies, along with some of the mysterious (to me) intricacies of software design, and the horrors of Assad's Syria.
Ultimately it is a depiction of the determination, commitment and love shared by Anna and Batul.
The author reminds us that close human relationships are complicated, sometimes messy, utterly particular to the individual - and something to be cherished.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with the advanced reading copy of ‘In Berlin’

Eric Silberstein tells a story full of love, hardship, obstacles, friendship, and above all, hope.

Anna is a normal woman working as a software engineer when the unthinkable happens- she suffers a stroke that leaves her unable to move nearly her whole body.
She is told her case is a rare one, and because of that, the doctors are unable to say what her life will look like long term.

Can Anna regain mobility? Or will she need to accept and adapt to her limited movements?

Anna’s doctors and family members want her to get better, but wanting her to get better and thinking she will get better are two different things. The only one who seems to see the person and not the disability is Batul, a young woman recently fleeing from Syria.

”When no one gave you the benefit of the doubt, when everything took ten times as long, when you depended on others, you needed a plan, and a backup plan, and a backup to the backup.”

It was really emotional reading about Anna’s mental state in the aftermath of her stroke. She tries to be positive, and believes that she will make improvements, but she also has moments where she thinks about how much better off everyone would be without her. She is still the same person no matter what happened to her, and when she thinks (even for a moment) that her physical abilities could in any way change her worth… well, it made me shed some tears for sure.

I wasn’t expecting to love the dynamic of Anna and Batul so much. There was so much depth and nuance to the connection they shared, and I was alternating sobbing and laughing with every interaction. They each had a backstory that felt very real and made sense with their personalities, but even though the backstories were detailed I never felt like it was diverting or taking away from the plot.

Anna is the main narrator of the story, but there are also quite a few chapters from Batul’s pov. In the beginning I wasn’t sure it was necessary because the story felt more like Anna’s alone, but the more I read the more my mind changed. I don’t think it could have been done any other way! The chapters where we get to be in Batul’s head are so important.

There is quite a bit of medical and tech jargon in this book, and also a lot of political talk- not in a way that’s confusing, but in a way that forces readers to slow down to take in the story. I appreciated how much I was able to learn in this book without the information taking away from the plot.

From the characters to the setting to the unimaginable hardships and heartache- this is a story that will surely stick with me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I loved this book. So well written, and such great insight to an experience none of us hope to share. The clash of cultures make it even more interesting and form the crux of the problem between Anna and Batul. Their love is tender and real, but filled with major obstacles.

The author's descriptions of the challenges Anna faces and how she deals with them is both frightening and inspirational. When I finished reading, I felt like I was leaving people I actually knew. All the characters were well developed and believable.

I will look out for others by this author.

This was an amazing story of love, resilience, and perseverance. Anna becomes paralyzed, yet stays mentally focused on believing her muscles will respond to her will. She meets a young woman who she is immediately taken with that has a brilliant mind and a bright disposition. Together they accomplish amazing growth, but apart, miracles continue to happen. This was an emotion and thoughtful story about what humans are capable of.

Such a unique story with multiple complex characters and a storyline different than any other I have read. I tend to be drawn to medical stories so many start to feel familiar. This one felt very new and I enjoyed it from start to finish

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.