Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

“The book is about people’s lives in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Anna Funder is an Australian journalist who was living in Berlin after the fall of the wall. She was really interested in the fact that the stories of East Germans just weren’t being told. The book is the account of her attempts to find these stories. She speaks to people who were resisting the Stasi – the secret police that controlled East Germany – and to people who were involved in the regime. It’s incredibly gripping, an eye opening account of the ways that people’s lives were touched—sometimes in small ways, and often in huge, seismic ways. Through these close, personal retellings she builds up a compelling view of the whole infrastructure of control.” Read more...

The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books

Samira Shackle, Journalist

“What Stasiland does really well, is it shows that these aren’t just arguments. That these people believed these views to the roots of their souls.” Read more...

The best books on Immersive Nonfiction

Will Storr

“Stasiland is written by a journalist from Australia, Anna Funder, who moved over to Germany just after the wall fell. She placed an advert in the newspaper asking to speak to old Stasi officials. Her book is a collection of stories about people whose lives have been affected by the Stasi. She describes the whole process, from the correspondence she has with them and how she feels about what they’re saying.” Read more...

The best books on Modern German History

Hester Vaizey, Historian