A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary [Paperback]

ANew York Times Book ReviewEditors' Choice

For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents. With bald honesty and brutal lyricism (Elle), the anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. Spare and unpredictable, minutely observed and utterly free of self-pity (The Plain Dealer,Cleveland),A Woman in Berlintells of the complex relationship between civilians and an occupying army and the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject--the mass rape suffered by all, regardless of age or infirmity.

A Woman in Berlinstands as one of the essential books for understanding war and life (A. S. Byatt, author ofPossession).

A devastating book. It is matter-of-fact, makes no attempt to score political points, does not attempt to solicit sympathy for its protagonist, and yet is among the most chilling indictments of war I have ever read. Everybody, in particular every woman, ought to read it. Arundhati Roy, Booker Prize-winning author of The God of Small Things

A tract essential for our often morally fuzzy times . . . It is destined to be a classic. San Francisco Chronicle

Let Anonymous stand witness as she wished to: as an undistorted voice for all women in war and its aftermath, whatever their names or nation or ethnicity. Anywhere. Los Angeles Times

An astonishing record of survival . . . the voice of Anonymous emerges as both shrewd and funny . . . a fresh contribution to the literature of war. Entertainment Weekly (grade: A)

A richly detailed, clear-eyed account of the effects of war and enemy occupation on a civilian population . . . She has written, in short, a work of literature, rich in charló2