Beyond the Blue Border
by Dorit Linke
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Pub Date Sep 07 2021 | Archive Date Sep 07 2021
Charlesbridge | Charlesbridge Teen
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Description
Hanna and Andreas have always been friends. When they're expelled from school for activism directly challenging the socialist state in East Germany, they end up doing factory work. But what kind of life do they have to look forward to without education or opportunity? Especially when they aren't allowed a voice? The choice to risk imprisonment or death by escaping to the democratic West seems like a risk worth taking. They set out to swim twenty-five hours across the choppy waters of the Baltic Sea.
Linke's storytelling achieves a delicate balance between heightened moments of danger--searchlights, jellyfish, a Russian helicopter, a violent summer storm--and the monotony, ineffable fatigue, physical pain, cramping, fear, and hope that fill the rest of the journey. A memorable tale of two people risking all for a chance at freedom.
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9781623541774 |
PRICE | $18.99 (USD) |
PAGES | 320 |
Featured Reviews
I absolutely adored this book!! I loved the amount of detail in it, the author did an amazing job with character connection.
I received this book as an eARC from Netgalley. All opinions are my own!
Hanna and Andreas just want out of oppressive East Germany and the life that it's barely offering them. But there's only one way out - across the Baltic Sea.
I essentially devoured this book every single time I picked it up! Even though it goes back and forth from different timelines, I felt like the story was very cohesive and I was almost equally invested in both times of Hanna and Andreas' lives. Both of them were amazingly relatable and I loved getting to know them and their stories. I was rooting for them from the moment they first hopped into the Baltic. I had been worried that a book with younger characters might be harder to connect to, but that was certainly not the case with Hanna and Andreas!
It was so interesting to see what life in East Germany might have been like for children and how it really developed them and made them into who they were - and really tamped down on their hopes and dreams. I loved this kind of insight into history and a different perspective on that time period for the world.
If you like historical fiction, this is the action-packed, thought-provoking book for you!