The Wall Between

Why would someone want to murder the father he never knew?

After Peter Körber is stabbed to death in Berlin, his son, Andreas, leaves his home in Denmark, where he was raised by his mother and stepfather, and travels to that once-divided city to uncover the brutal truth. In his search to know this complete stranger, Andreas hopes to come to grips with his own identity crisis, stalled academic career, and failed relationship.

But what kind of man was his father? A complicated portrait begins to emerge concerning Peter’s role in the German Democratic Republic before reunification. As Andreas struggles to find a chink in the wall of secrets and lies that obscures the real Peter Körber, he brings to light disturbing revelations that open fresh wounds and have devastating consequences.

Gripping and profoundly moving, The Wall Between is a haunting novel of the harsh realities of living under a repressive regime, the price of blind allegiance to ideology, and the moral complexity of personal culpability.

Jesper Bugge Kold was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and worked as a journalist before becoming a librarian and website designer. His previous novel, Winter Men, was nominated for the debutant prize at Denmark’s Book Forum in 2014. He lives in South Funen with his wife and two children.

K. E. Semmel is a writer and translator. In addition to previously translating Jesper Bugge Kold’s Winter Men, his translations include books by Naja Marie Aidt, Karin Fossum, Erik Valeur, Jussi Adler-Olsen, and Simon Fruelund. He is a recipient of numerous grants from the Danish Arts Foundation and is a 2016 NEA Literary Translation Fellow. He lives in Rochester, New York, where he is the executive director of Writers & Books.