Categories: books
Date: 10 November 2009 07:00:57
On my recent travels I took for company Berlin Tales, a collection of stories translated into English by Lyn Marven.
This volume is a great companion for those who do not know the city as much as it is for those who do. It takes us on a journey to Berlin through the ages - from the deprivation and decadence of the post WW1 years, to WW2 which followed soon afterwards. There are also stories from both sides of the divided city during the Cold War, the fall of the Wall and of the experiences of reintegration.
Represented are classic voices (Döblin, Tucholsky) and more contemporary authors (Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Carmen Francesca Banciu - the eagle-eyed will recognise those names as being Turkish and Romanian respectively).
There are tales of summertime, the S-Bahn, the DDR, and a host of other topics all of which make up Berlin over the years.