This gripping Cold War narrative by Katherine Reay immerses readers in the heart of Berlin, capturing the tension and turmoil of both its early days and the historic fall of the Berlin Wall. Through the intertwined stories of CIA codebreaker Luisa Voekler and East Berlin journalist Haris Voekler, the novel delves into themes of sacrifice, identity, and the pursuit of freedom. As Luisa uncovers the truth about her family’s past and embarks on a daring mission to rescue her father from East German captivity, readers are taken on a journey of suspense and revelation. With its meticulously researched historical backdrop and compelling characters, this stand-alone novel offers a poignant exploration of human resilience and the enduring quest for truth and reconciliation. Plus, with discussion questions included, it’s sure to spark lively conversations in book clubs.

Wow. This is a strong work of historical fiction, opening up the world of a divided Berlin and life alongside the terrible wall. I have never learned a lot about the Cold War and the wall, so being able to read a work of fiction about it was truly enlightening and makes me want to learn more about this terribly difficult and sad time in world history. The author brings her characters to life and gives us small glimpses into their past that allow us to see how the past has influenced who they are at the time of the story. With so much danger and intrigue going on in our world during that time, I appreciate the way the author shows those things through the lives of her characters and their experiences. Lies, deception, betrayal, fear, loss, loyalty, love, and courage are all components that compel the reader to read more and to wish the book was not over when the last page is turned. Luisa’s whole world is rocked when she finds her grandfather’s letters, and I was not able to put down this book until I knew what the end of the story was. I highly recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction, to those who know little about the Cold War, and to anyone looking for a well-written story.

I requested a copy of this book for review, but the thoughts expressed here are wholly my own.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley.
This story centers around a family who are separated in East and West Berlin when the Berlin Wall went up almost overnight. The loss and grieving for 26 years and how that created their roles in the family as each dealt with it in their own way. A great book about a subject I haven't spent much time on before so it was very thought-provoking.

The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay is a historical fiction novel about the Cold War focused around the story of Luisa, a code breaker for the CIA, in 1989 and her father in East Berlin during the 1960s. Luisa discovers the Berlin Letters through work and finds a link to her grandfather which sends her on a mission to free her father from jail in Berlin as the wall is coming down. The last part of the book reads like a Mission Impossible movie! This story is intricately woven with turbulent history and the ties of family that span decades. Luisa’s family loves her fervently and she risks it all to save her dad whom she has never met.

I highly recommend this historical fiction book for the nonstop action, relevant history, and perspectives of living in East Berlin during the Cold War.

Thank you Harper Muse and Netgalley for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I feel like l've entered my "historical era" and what I mean by that is that historical fiction now encompasses events that have taken place in my lifetime. While it's true that the Berlin Wall was erected long before my birth (1961), here is where *|* intersect with this chapter in history: born in 1987, the wall “came down” in 1989, and my family moved to Germany in 1990 (my parents used a mallet and chisel to chip away pieces of the wall to keep as souvenirs). It’s hard not to feel the enormity of this and Katherine Reay has written a compelling historical narrative to bring home the weight of what the wall meant and to remind us that in the midst of terrifying emotional and physical hardship, there were people brave enough to say this:

“It's letting go of what you're supposed to do be doing for whatever comes your way. It's about creating a future of our own making, not accepting the one they shove at us. And it's all risk. Every breath in every day."

I loved this story of a mother's sacrifice, a grandfather's secret, a father's evolution, and a daughter's determination to make it all worthwhile.

I know people who lived under this wall, and things were hard if you were on the wrong side! Loved Reagan's speech to Gorbachev!
This read has it all, such love and sacrifice, only to break ones heart and will to live. While others thrive, some pretend to be friends, so sad, and they do this right to the end.
This is a story of survival, and great love! Luisa is brought up in Washington D.C., when her Grandfather dies she learns that her father is still alive and behind that wall.
What a journey we begin and the sacrifices made to go to Germany and rescue her father! We travel with her with our hearts in our throat!
Keep reading the author's notes are great!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Harper Muse, and was not required to give a positive review.

I have read several of Katherine Reay's historical books and this one is now my favorite! Set in Washington D.C and Berlin, this story of what life was like in East & West Berlin is both heart breaking and amazing at the same time. It is suspenseful and leaves you wanting to know! This one will stay with me for awhile.

I loved this new historical fiction set in Berlin in the days of the cold war. There are plenty of books about WW2, but not so many about other periods related to it. I learned a bunch about East and West Berlin and how the wall came down in 1989. Fascinating story.
This was a compelling read which I finished in 24 hours; I had to know what happened next.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you so much NetGalley and Harper Muse, it was a treat!

'It's funny how easily you can convince yourself that the people you live with see the world like you do'.

The Berlin Letters takes on a journey back through recent history and the day Russia permanently detached East Berlin from the West by building a solid wall. A wall that unexpectedly and instantaneously divided friends, families, employees and even buildings. On that day in August 1961, Monika Voekler made a split decision, she wrenched her daughter Luisa from her stroller and threw her over the barbed wire into the arms of her father. Her father who, distrusting the increasing grip of the iron fist, had already moved to safety in the West. Eventually, Luisa moved to America. She grew up with her grandparents and believed her parents had died in a car accident when she was young. But in her new role as a decoder, at the CIA, she stumbles across a pack of letters that unsettle her. They seem familiar. In the true spirit of a spy game, full of secrets, she discovers the real truth about her family.

This dual-time, dual-narrated story ticks down from the building of the wall, a daring rescue before it's too late.

I really enjoyed this story. It has many layers to it and keeps building throughout and delivers at the end. 'The Berlin Letters' is not only for historical fiction lovers, and Cold War followers but also those who enjoy spy novels.

Three word summary: informative, complex and thrilling.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. This was fast paced and I couldn’t put it down. I am a Gen Xer. So this was fantastic for me to remember these events. I loved having the pov from the dad’s side. I was nice to get all the view points from all the family. I did have all the feels for Luisa. I did tear up a bit. I felt for Monica and her family. I really feel like people dont remember enough about the Cold War and this is a refresher. It is incredible what the people did for their families good or bad. The punks I wan to read more about. I did have moments of flashback from the movie Gotcha.

This was a really good historical fiction book set in both East Berlin and Washington DC. I was really sucked into this book and held my breath for most of it. It’s weird because that’s a time period I lived through but feel like I haven’t done enough adult research on. Very good book!

This is a fast-paced page turner taking place primarily in East Berlin just before The Wall came down in 1989. CIA codebreaker Luisa Voekler finds a symbol on some letters from just after the Berlin Wall went up that seem familiar. So begins her search that will lead her to uncover secrets about her family that ultimately send her to Berlin at the end of the Cold War. Excellent book about a time I haven’t read much about.

The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay is a historical fiction novel that takes the readers back to the tense days leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The story follows Luisa Voekler, a CIA cryptographer who stumbles upon a coded message that hints her long-lost father is imprisoned by the Stasi in East Germany. This discovery launches Luisa on a dangerous mission across the divide of the Iron Curtain to find and free him before it’s too late.

Reay excels at capturing the chaos and confusion swirling around the big, squat, ugly, gray Berlin in the final years of the Cold War. Through Luisa’s eyes, the readers experience the bizarre juxtaposition of the Western capitalist and Eastern communist societies seated side-by-side, separated only by an artificial border. The stories of Luisa and her father under Stasi’s imprisonment are woven together skillfully, building suspense as his health deteriorates. Luisa races to navigate the complex ties of spies and smugglers on both sides of the wall to reach him.

The Berlin Letters succeeds as both a gripping thriller and a heartfelt story of a family torn apart by secrecy and political turmoil. Reay’s extensive historical research shows as she vividly reconstructs the covert wheeling and dealing behind the Iron Curtain while also maintaining an emotional core focused on reconciliation and second chances. As the wall crumbles around her characters, so do the barriers that keep Luisa from her father.

It’s a very satisfying and fascinating glimpse at an iconic historical moment through the eyes of a family that embodies its complex legacy. This was definitely out of my normal genre of reading, however, I did enjoy reading it. I recommend this book to all historical fiction lovers.

Thank you to Angela Melamud, and Katherine Reay for allowing me to read and review this book.

Longtime readers of the Books About Letters series may recall our 2022 review of 'The London House' by Katherine Reay. When I saw 'The Berlin Letters' by Katherine Reay (HarperCollins, 2024) available on NetGalley for review, I had to jump at the chance! In this novel, we time travel from the 1960s to 1989 as a young woman learns the truth about herself, her family, and her country through the medium of coded letters during the Cold War. Read on for a review and thoughts on this month's Book About Letters.

(P.S. I cannot look at this cover and not think of Uma Thurman!)

Our main character, Louisa, works by day as a CIA code breaker and discovers through the course of a routine assignment a symbol she recognizes -- from childhood. So we begin the story of Louisa and Haris Voekler, the father she never knew now ominously imprisoned in East Germany.

So the fundamental question: Is this a book about letters? Yes! We learn thanks to Louisa's well honed skill for code breaking that letters containing news about life in East Berlin have been making it out from behind the Wall for almost thirty years. But it is up to Louisa to detangle to what extent these letters have shaped not only her life, but history generally. While not wholly epistolary -- there are at length letters 'reproduced' in the context of the story, however -- this novel qualifies as a Book About Letters because they are used as a key plot device and are referenced with regularity as the story progresses.

If you, like me, know very little about the history behind the construction of the Berlin Wall and the regime(s) that developed around it, I recommend this excellent video from TED-Ed to help contextualize the dense history:

Reay's well researched novel weaves the historical and the human together with evident craft. World building plays a huge part in this novel as Louisa learns about her background and the very real circumstances of not only her father, but the citizens of East Berlin just before the Wall 'came down' in 1989. Through the use of journalist characters in her plotting, Reay is able to explain and layer exposition which flavors the novel as her talent for human connection braids the narratives.

I first visited Berlin in August of 2023. Strangely enough, Reay in her acknowledgments writes that she spent February of the same year exploring the city for research. An eerie parallel. I had never been to Germany before and found it hard to visualize, or imagine, the trip in the lead up. I could have never pictured the city I found there. I had a wonderful, local tour guide -- my penpal, Alex -- who brought us around and showed us -- it felt -- like almost 'everything' in just one gloriously hot day. We saw Barenberg Gate, saw the remnants of the Wall, and visited Checkpoint Charlie among other spots.

It was that trip to Berlin that colored my experience of 'The Berlin Letters' so vividly. And I am so thankful for both the opportunity to travel there then and to return to the city through Reay's words. I believe that reading can transport us and to be able to map the Berlin I had experienced against the world Reay builds in her novel, added to my overall enjoyment while reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read and review 'The Berlin Letters' by Katherine Reay, out March 5th from HarperCollins publishing.

An absorbing novel about the Cold War told from the perspective of one family torn apart by the construction of the Berlin Wall. The novel opens on Sunday August 13, 1961 when Monica Voekler is walking with her 3 year-old daughter, Luisa, to meet up with Monica's parents and younger sister in their neighbourhood in the western sector only to discover that barriers have been constructed overnight to prevent movement back and forth between East and West Berlin. The story is then told from the point of view of two narrators with Monica's husband, Haris Voekler, telling his story from the day the Berlin wall went up in 1961 through to November 9, 1989 and Luisa telling her story over a few days in 1989.

Luisa works in Washington, DC as a CIA codebreaker and has moved in with her Oma as her Opa has recently died. Luisa believes that she moved to the US with her grandparents after her parents were killed in a car crash but when she discovers a cache of letters which she refers to as The Berlin Letters, she realizes that her father is actually alive in Berlin and has been writing to her grandfather for 25 years embedding secret messages within the text of the letters. The most recent letter from several months earlier reveals that her father is in trouble and, as protests spread across Eastern Europe, Luisa races to save her father.

I was in university in 1989 and remember very clearly the protests across Eastern Europe and the incredible day when the wall came down in Berlin but didn't know much about the construction of the wall or what it was like to live in the GDR during the Cold War. The Berlin Letters is a fascinating, thoroughly researched historical fiction novel - it's fictionalized but has a firm foundation in the facts and I finished with a better understanding of how individual families were torn apart and suffered, how people existed with fear/paranoia about being watched by unknown informants for the government in Eastern bloc countries and how various geopolitical events in the late 1980s led to change. The Berlin Letters has all the suspense of a political thriller but is also a story about an individual family torn apart by a totalitarian regime and reunited with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. A captivating page-turner that teaches history with an entertaining story!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for sending a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

At the time of the Berlin wall, a mother on the east side tosses her baby daughter to her father on the west side, but is stopped before she can get over. Years later, the grown daughter finds letters from her father to her grandfather. She decides to go find her parents.

Well crafted story center on the time around the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and providing personal, historical stories of a family divided by it's construction. Characters are well developed and likeable, my only complaint is the rushed feeling to the final chapters and the epilogue - seemed like a "well, reached my word limit, so wham bam, that's the end. Worthwhile read for fans of Cold War thrillers / espionage stories.

Katherine Reay is taking on a very different storyline lately. Spy novels is not something I think of when I first think of Reay's books. But let me tell you, it is now.
Set as the wall goes up and then in 1989, the two different perspectives on when, why, and how the wall effected the citizens on both sides. Effects that continued long into the future.
Luisa Voekler knew her parents lived and died on the other side of the iron curtain. She doesn't know all the story and the hidden cache of letters written between her grandfather, the man who taught her all about codes and secrets messages, and her father, the man she thought long dead, turns her world upside down.
Behind the curtain, Haris Voekler has had his view of communism changed as he lives longer and longer under it. So much so he wants to do something about it. He starts writing his late wife's father and starts in motion something that may just change the world.
I know I would make a terrible spy. I just am not sure I would be able to keep it all straight, but Reay pens a story about ordinary people doing what they have to make sure the world is a better place. I am surprised by these stories, ones we never learn about in history class. Reay's book gives me different perspective on how hard people were working for freedom and what were some of the reasons for the wall coming down.
A very interesting historical fiction for those of us that remember that day well. It is also the story of how one person can make a big difference in the world if they just do the right thing.

My first Katherine Reay book was, “Dear Mr. Knightley,” which I adored. While the other titles written by Reay around this time didn’t grab me quite as much, last year I was blown away by, “A Shadow in Moscow,” my favorite book of 2023. When I saw that there was a new book coming out by this author, who is now a definite favorite, I was beyond excited to receive an advanced copy to read on NetGalley. I only hoped it lived up to her achievement of the previous year’s, “A Shadow in Moscow.” It did! “The Berlin Letters,” is (thankfully) a bit different than the many, many novels that have come out it the last several years surrounding the World War ll time period. I have heard a lot about the Berlin Wall over the years, and have read other novels on the topic. However, I learned many things that I had never heard before in this book. The overall concept of how a culture is infiltrated by Communism is very interesting and very relevant to our times. The story is engaging from start to finish, and is one I will definitely encourage others to read in the future!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Harper Muse through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Washington, DC, 1989

Luisa Voekler misses her beloved Opa and her life before he died. The life where she lives alone works as a code breaker for a super-secret branch of the CIA and visits her grandparents. But she promised her Opa she would move back home to care for her Oma when he died.

While she doesn’t regret her decision, her grandmother’s hovering and worrying have restricted her life. Her friends want her to join them more often and revive her social life. Luisa doesn’t know why she resists—she feels close to no one, has horrible dreams, and feels like a failure because she didn’t make the cut as a CIA agent.

When a coworker brings her the Berlin letters—pieces of coded correspondence from an agent in Berlin, a small mark on one of the envelopes sparks a memory of a long-ago conversation with Opa. All the games they played in her childhood have a new meaning, and Luisa races to crack the code and discover the truth about her parents.

Does she still have time to save one of them?

East Berlin, Germany, 1961

Haris Voekler, star reporter for the party newspaper, mourns when his wife, Monica, does the unthinkable. Rather than stay in East Berlin as the party builds a wall separating the city, she passes their three-year-old daughter over the concertina wire to her parents. Haris and Monica cannot escape the ever-restricting community and the ever-intrusive Stasi.

After Monica dies of a broken heart, Haris begins a coded correspondence with his father-in-law, Walther. The game of hiding the truth in banal pleasantries gives him a challenge his job no longer provides. Demoted at work, watched on every side, and living with the devastating realization that he chose the wrong side, Haris needs the correspondence to maintain his sanity.

As friends and coworkers suffer through arrest and face death for their courageous decisions, Haris must decide what he will do.

By 1989, Haris had joined the resistance, and someone had betrayed him. His father-in-law hasn’t written for months, and he wastes away in a Stasi prison. Hope dries up. Then, the unthinkable happens in the middle of a prison transfer.

What I Loved About This Book

This book intrigued me as someone who grew up hearing about the Berlin Wall and reading stories in the Reader’s Digest of daring escapes over it. I don’t usually read historical books set in my lifetime (I feel like a relict), but The Berlin Letters quickly grabbed my attention and kept it.

Reay explores how the missing pieces of our lives impact us more than we realize. Luisa has no firm memories of her early life, and those missing pieces cause nightmares and a vague sense of loss. Only as she works to uncover her past does she start to awaken. Haris discovers a way to fight against the society he once touted as perfect by writing to his father-in-law. His small rebellion keeps a spark of hope inside him because it fills in the missing pieces of his daughter’s life.

Thoughtful, thorough, and swirling with mystery and intrigue, The Berlin Letters will take you on a journey through despair and hope.