The House at the Bridge: A Story of Modern Germany

This is a book that I didn't think alot about when I picked it up to read, but in the end, it left an indelible impression. Hafner narrates the history of the different players in the book in separate chapters, and in some sense that threw me off, because some people were more interesting than others. Basically, the book is the story of a house prior to the second world war, up to the building and fall of the Berlin Wall. (The house was in the no go zone just on the Eastern sector of the wall). The beginning of the book is as expected, as we've heard many of the stories about how Nazism and the war affected the lives of those directly or indirectly involved. Where the book really takes off, is when the story moves into the era of the Berlin wall, and how the players were touched by its arrival, its existence, and its tearing down. The latter is not the ending that many people expected.

You don't have to be a history buff to read this book, it is very much about the human element. If you have the patience to let the author take you where she wants you to go, the book is very much worth the read. ( )