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“A
story of great drama and human interest … Hundreds tried
to escape through, or under the Wall, and Taylor tells the
story of their ingenious efforts and occasional heart-stopping
successes with great verve”
-- The Times
“”Superb, fast-paced and readable history …
This important book reminds us of a dangerous age we lived
through”
-- Evening Standard (London)
“A thorough attempt to preserve the historical record
before the moths of fading of or false memory devour it …
an intelligent and well-researched account. His most commendable
achievement is to have resuscitated those who died because
of the Wall.”
-- The Daily Telegraph
“The story of this ‘foetid flourishing’
is convincingly told … For those who wish to understand
the rise of the Wall, this book is valuable”
-- The Independent
“A fine book, perfectly balanced between historical
analysis and lively anecdote and written with great verve”
-- The Literary Review
“Frederick Taylor … follows up his outstanding
Dresden with The Berlin Wall, and manages once again to combine
serious historical research with an assured, gripping narrative
… Taylor's extraordinary narrative skill - with the
pacing of a thriller and the immediacy of reportage - is at
its best as he knits together into a seamless narrative numerous
eye-witness accounts of August 12th and 13th, 1961”
-- The Irish Times
“The Berliners’ spirit shines though in this account
of the first years of Soviet control. However, it is when
the building of the Wall commences that Taylor really hits
his stride. Using personal accounts of those who lived through
the brutal division of Berlin in 1961, he intricately weaves
stories to form a superb, gripping narrative.”
-- Susie Dent, Countdown word expert and Costa/Whitbread
Prize judge, “Reading for Pleasure” in The Bookseller.
"A
superb narrative … Taylor's enthralling story, combined
with impeccable research and its rich human interest, makes
this as dramatically gripping as any of the spy thrillers
that used the wall as a backdrop.”
-- Publishers Weekly (USA)
“Taylor
provides a fascinating and often heartbreaking account of
both the human costs and the geopolitical effects.”
- Booklist
“This
book provides fast-paced narratives focusing on individuals
caught up in the defining moments of World War II and its
aftermath … The stories give new life to a once-vital
chapter in history that since has been superseded.”
- Library Journal
“What
grabbed us -- the powerful portraits of East Germans who fled
and also those forced to stay”
- Wall Street Journal Summer Books Roundup
“Highly
readable … In chilling, precise detail, Mr. Taylor explains
how the regime made its preparations.”
- New York Sun
"[A]
gripping, impassioned history of the cold war's most malevolent
symbol...The tales are both horrific and thrilling...Taylor
does a great service in carefully separating myth from reality,
symbol from substance as he traces the history of the wall
from its beginnings in August 1961."
-- New York Times
"Recommended....Hold[s]
your attention.... A serious, edifying experience."
-- Janet Maslin, CBS Sunday Morning "Hot Summer
Books"
"It’s
a story we think we know, since the outlines have long figured
in headlines. But as Frederick Taylor demonstrates in this
new history, it’s also a story with odd twists and hidden
secrets, many only recently revealed, some that have been
forgotten and are worth repeating … Taylor concludes
his excellent history much as I began this review, with a
stroll through the newly intact neighborhoods, marveling at
the fact that in many parts of Berlin, it is impossible to
tell where the Wall used to be. Indeed, sometimes it seems
as if it had never existed at all."
— Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post
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