It's post WWII and the Berlin Wall is going up. No one in Germany ever could have guessed how quickly it would go up, nor how long it would stay up. Karin is in hospital on the wrong side of the wall when it goes up and by the time she is discharged, there is no passage back. Her twin sister, Jutta is still in West Berlin and anxious to find away to get her sister out. After a year, the chance finally arrives in the form of a secret tunnel into East Berlin., But it does not end up being as easy as expected. What happens when Karin is in love with a devoted East German?

This was a very intriguing story to read. There were so many times I just wanted to yell at the sisters, so clearly I was invested in this story. There was great suspense, love, divided ideologies, and lots of risks taken. A couple times I didn't feel that what was written was possible, but overall I really enjoyed this story. It was an interesting look into a time period that I barely knew. I remember the wall coming down, but clearly did not truly understand what that meant for the people of Berlin.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was an interesting tell about German after WWII when it was divided and the wall went up. I love that it was the point of views of both sisters who were separated by the wall. And what each went through.

I liked Jutta and Karin. They were well developed characters. I expected a bit more….something in the story. More drama than unease? More thought put into certain situations? I love learning about different time periods and places, so the author did a great job there. I liked the little side bits about their lives and the people in it. Side characters could have been better developed but honestly, the main characters were the main focus….and they were written real.

Read this for a historical fiction NOT in WWII. You may enjoy the dive into Berlin history and the horrors of the walls while the war waged on.

This book was excellent. I so appreciated the focus on a part of history I had not seen much in books and knew little about. Both of the main characters were compelling and it was so easy to understand both of their struggles. The pacing was great in my opinion, and the end was a nice resolution. I look forward to more from this author.

The Girl Behind the Wall by Mandy Robotham is a compelling story about twin sisters who find themselves unexpectedly separated by the rise of the Berlin Wall. I can’t even imagine the pain, frustration, confusion, fear, desperation and heartache that Berliner’s must have felt from being unexpectedly separated from loved ones and the political machinations that followed with the rise of the wall. A lover of historical fiction, I am normally drawn to WW2 fiction and I found this to be an interesting and refreshing departure from my norm.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books and HarperCollins for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I have always enjoyed historical fiction books, of course, most of the ones I have read have been in sometime during the Holocaust. I was excited when I found out about this book and that it was set during a period where Berlin was divided. The premise of the story of incredible, the wall not only divided a state but rather families, and in this case a set of twins. Jutta is an ambitious, and courageous protagonist working to reunite with her sister.

I enjoyed the back and forth between the twin’s points of view, and each being able to tell their story. We could see what they each experienced in their side of Berlin during the division and how it shaped the individuals they became. Jutta never giving up hope of being by her sister’s side through everything risking it all for her. I would have liked to see more of their story, I felt the ending was a bit rushed. There is more that could have been added especially with how long they were separated, such as their lives in adulthood with their partners, etc.

I will admit I found myself annoyed at the division of the twins, once they found a gateway that allowed them to have communication. Allowing them to be reunited and coming together, to live happily ever after. I feel like I went on a rollercoaster in this book, just for them to still be divided for 26 years (even though they had a way to be together), not the ending that I hoped for but I understand this was the reality for many families (the part of being separated not the part of the gateway and deciding to stay). But the book was still incredibly written and I really enjoyed it.

Karin and Jutta, twin sisters have their lives forever changed as the Berlin Wall is built literally overnight. One sister gets stuck in East Berlin while the other in in West Berlin.
This is an amazing historical fiction and a must read!
Mandy Robotham is positively brilliant in how she brings history into her novels. I love her writing!

Another great historical by the author, during the time when the Cold War seemed it's coldest.
A wall separates twin sisters Karin and Jutter. The Stasi ( secret police ) are everywhere ,always watching and listening to those in their shadows. The story is fast and a thriller, you dont know how or when the sisters can be reunited. A chilling Cold War era novel!

Another brilliant portrayal of life in Berlin in summer of 1961 when the wall was erected overnight…which still stymies me. The main characters are young adult female twins, Karin, a West Berliner who was hospitalized in East Berlin after an emergency operation on her appendix, and Jutta. Each tell their own stories which brought me to tears along with the realization that so many families were separated by this infamous wall. The differences between life on both sides of the wall were clearly depicted through the eyes of Karin and Jutta. Both women were immediately likable, and my admiration for them continued to grow throughout the book. At times I felt as if I were right there with them.
The ending came far too soon and I was left wanting to know more about their lives . Many many thanks to Mandy Robotham for another fantastic story, Avon, and NetGalley for affording me the pleasure of reading this incredible story.

It’s 1961 and Jutta and Karin are best friends and twins. They’re inseparable until Karin goes to East Berlin alone for a day and falls ill on the night the USSR laid barbed wire around what would become the Berlin Wall. While West Berliners are the ones trapped by a physical barrier, East Berliners are the ones suffering from
the effects of communism behind the iron curtain. Years pass before Jutta stumbles upon a crack in the wall. Will Karin escape with Jutta back to the West and everything she’s ever known or will she risk never seeing her family again for Otto, an architect who is committed to the East Berlin way of life.

This book was just okay for me and about 75 pages too long. It took me forever to get through Part 1 which really dragged on for me. In contrast, Part 4 was rushed and chaotic. The writing was decent but I just didn’t enjoy the pacing. I know Mandy Robotham’s writing is well liked and I really enjoy historical fiction. This one just wasn’t for me. I give it 2.5 stars.

Mandy Robatham's "The Girl Behind the Wall" tells the stories of twin sisters, Jutta and Karin, who are living in Berlin in 1961, on the day that the wall was unveiled to the citizens of Berlin and the rest of the world. One of the twins, Jutta, finds herself on the West side - in freedom, while her twin, Karin, is trapped on the East side after going to a meeting and then collapsing and requiring emergency surgery. The family is torn apart - and the twins feel the separation as no others can: their other half is missing. Jutta discovers a way to cross over the wall, and the story tells what happens next in a compelling way. It is a fascinating look into the era, told poignantly, personally. I highly recommend it!

#TheGirlBehindtheWall #NetGalley

When the Berlin Wall goes up, Karin is on the wrong side of the city. Overnight, she’s trapped under Soviet rule in unforgiving East Berlin and separated from her twin sister, Jutta. Karin and Jutta lead parallel lives for years, cut off by the Wall. But Karin finds one reason to keep going: Otto, the man who gives her hope, even amidst the brutal East German regime. When Jutta finds a hidden way through the wall, the twins are reunited. But the Stasi have eyes everywhere, and soon Karin is faced with a terrible decision: to flee to the West and be with her sister, or sacrifice it all to follow her heart?

I have read a lot of historical fiction but not much about the Berlin Wall, and the fact it went up so quickly and trapped people on both sides. This is a very well written and researched book about that time period and the consequences that followed. The author did a lot of research which is evident in the detail of the story. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book.

Thank you for my early review copy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I believe this book will be a huge bestseller.

This was an excellent and engaging story covering the construction, communication and human impact from the building of the Berlin Wall. Two twins, Jutta and Karin, though living in West Berlin, are separated after Karin is unexpectedly hospitalized with a medical emergency while on a work-related visit to East Berlin. What is clearly brought out in the story—and which I never knew previously—was that the impending Wall construction was known in advance only to a few senior East Germans. Even those workmen who eventually constructed it did not know beforehand why they had been called to the area . Hence, Karin is amazed and appalled after surgery and medical setbacks to learn that she is now “trapped” in the East sector and that communication had been quickly cut off.

Jutta and Karin were extremely close twins and shared a room at home in West Berlin, so were both dismayed on a deep emotional level when Karin was hospitalized. Jutta eventually finds a secret way across, and the story becomes increasingly fast-moving from then on.

What is portrayed so well here is the overwhelming and repressive Stasi surveillance of any East German expressing the least dissent or diversion from Party thinking, using Vopos, neighborhood informants and so on to eke out leads to suspicious activity. The extent of this State observation is probably unimaginable to most in the West and is revealing.

I found the very beginning of the book a bit slow going, centering on the emotional, almost physical, “thread” between the twins and to a lesser degree, within the family, but the story picks up steam quickly after Jutta’s first crossing to see Karin.

My thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Mandy Robotham is a solid historical fiction writer. She writes fast-paced, compelling narratives about major historical events. The Girl Behind the Wall marks her first foray into the Berlin Wall and the complications of life in a country split between East and West. It deals with twin sisters and the difficulties encountered by the sister who ends up in the East on the day the Wall goes up. I really enjoyed Robotham's examination of the underground systems by which people tried to escape to the West. I think this is a commendable effort in a new historical era, though I would not call it one of Robotham's very best.

2 sisters (twins, in fact) and 2 Berlins. One West, the other East. If your sister found herself on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall, unable to return to the West, and you found a way to sneak in and out from West to East and then East to West, would you? That is the fascinating dilemma this book poses. But then again, if it was your twin, would it truly be a dilemma?

My family is one such family who found themselves on the wrong side of the wall, so this book hit home for me. Plus, my family saw their Stasi files so, again, relatable.

Recommended.

have received this book as an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review. The story begins the day the Berlin Wall goes up. It is a story of twin sisters who lived in West Germany with their family. However on the day the wall goes up one sister is in East Germany and cannot get back to her family. I read a great many books, but have never read a book about the day to day impact of the wall to actual people who were separated for the 26 years that the wall was up. I found the book very interesting and suspenseful.

Oh my goodness, this was FANTASTIC. This is a book to give you a true "book hangover." It was THAT good. So many books focus on WWII nowadays that we forget about the aftermath, especially as Berlin and other countries were divided up and taken over by Communist/Stalinist Russia. The Berlin Wall has always been a fascination of mine, that people would risk so much to escape to the west - and the courage it took to do so, or to stand up to the fearsome Stasi. This book had great protagonists, and I felt the love the sisters have for each other. I also liked the drama, the romance, and the way the author portrayed the everyday lives of people who survived in East Berlin. Many Robotham has written four books, and this one is her best! If you like historical fiction, I highly recommend this book!

When I see the name Mandy Robotham, i instantly think of historical fiction. I am a huge fan & was so excited to read The Girl Behind the Wall. Cover to cover, I was sucked in and finished it in less than 2 days. It’s heart breaking, emotional, suspenseful, and has an ending that was perfect. This is by far the best historical fiction novel I’ve read all year!

Robotham (The German Midwife) delivers with this compelling narrative focusing on the physical and emotional impact to one family when Berlin is officially separated into two distinct parts. On August 13, 1961, the division of East and West Berlin becomes solidified with the expansion of the wall and the prohibition of crossing the border. Twins Jutta and Karin Voigt reside in West Berlin but become separated on that fateful night when Karin ends up at the Charite, an East Berlin hospital, and has surgery for an emergency appendectomy.

The requests of Jutta’s family to permit Karin’s return to West Berlin are systematically denied. Karin relies on the kindness of Dr. Simms, a physician at the hospital, who lets Karin move in with him and his wife and helps her find a job working in housekeeping at the hospital. Almost two years later, Jutta discovers an entrance to East Berlin through an abandoned garage and contacts Karin after going to the Charite and meeting Dr. Simms. Karin is more than reluctant to leave East Berlin as she has fallen in love with Otto, an architect who will not leave his parents behind to go to West Berlin.

Jutta continues to make the risky crossing to the East to see Karin and even arranges for Karin to make a trip back with her to the West to visit their mother who has been frantic with worry over Karin’s fate. But Jutta’s continued trips have attracted the unwanted attention of Axel, a student at the university where she works. He insists that she needs to continue with the dangerous journeys to deliver messages helping people who want to leave to come to the West if she wants continued access to the East. Jutta’s perilous missions are complicated by her budding relationship with American Lieutenant Danny Strachan who is unaware of her covert activities.

Robotham’s latest will resonate with readers with its unique focus on the abrupt events that created an insurmountable division in a city, creating an undercurrent of resistance and culture of spying and fear of informants. Readers will appreciate the bond shared by twins as they navigate their forced separation and consider the tenuous threads tying families together and the allure of young love.