Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
For decades, the Berlin Wall divided a nation, and as long as it stood, it also divided families. In Forty Autumns, former U.S. Army intelligence officer Nina Willner details the isolation and deprivation wrought by the East German state through the lens of one extraordinary family: her own.
At 20 years old, Nina Willner’s mother Hanna escaped East Germany for the promise of a better, more free life in the west. Yet in fleeing over the border with only a small bag of posessions, she left behind her parents and all her siblings. She had no idea it would be decades before they could be reunited.
Told with both the wider context of history and the deeply personal lens of a family portrait, Forty Autumns speaks to the uncertainty of the Cold War, the crushing power of a dictatorship, and the enduring bond of sisterhood.
Quote:
“Heidi watched the scene unfold on television, saw people dancing on the Wall, but simply did not believe any of it was real. Reinhard was confused. Even as they watched television coverage of the masses of people streaming through the borders, Heidi trusted none of it. Having lived her entire life within the East German system, her defenses remained sharp and she was convinced it was a fake newscast, part of an elaborate ruse orchestrated by the East German secret police to guage citizens’ allegiance and ferret out enemies of the state. Even when she heard loud music, elated voices drunk with happiness, and cheers streaming out from her apartment complex, Heidi remained sure it was just a matter of time before the regime would crack down and all would become as it had been before.”
Author:
Nina Willner served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in Berlin during the Cold War, then worked in Prague, Minsk, and Moscow for the U.S. government and various human rights charities. She currently lives in Istanbul. Forty Autumns is her first published book.
Published: 2016
Length: 355 pages
Set in: Berlin, Schwaneburg, Klein Apenburg, and Heidelberg, Germany