Stasi Child: The award-winning Cold War crime thriller

The story could take place anywhere, and the choice to put it into mid-70s GDR by garnishing it with key elements of other retrospective history-tainment works, only cheapens the experience. The attempts to speak the mind of East German women on matters of equality and abortion, are particularly wooden and contrived. Then the story seems to chase itself, both in terms of two narratives artificially meeting in the present when they had better remained strangers to each other; as well as the pace picking up to hurry forward for no good reason, considering each chapter was time stamped like a popular TV show in the 2000s. The terrible story building is not entirely saved by Young's decent writing. Being an East German child of the 70s, I got a taste, of the inaccurate dishonest factuality foreign distemporary writers all too often fall back on, just like Karl May who never visited the places and times of his novels. Be entertained if you didn't grow up in East Germany, if you must.

Really enjoyed the book, have so many questions for the next one :) I don't know much about the berlin wall, I was only born in 83, but I am a ww2 nerd and now feel a huge pull towards post ww2 books, as the era had a huge profound effect on the future. Would recommend downloading the sample, the introduction is brilliant and needed to navigate your way thro the past if like me you are a young one! The ending is very clever, roll on book 2 :)

Love this book! The author is doing a great job by writing the story from two different storyline creating many different suspense that makes me couldn't put the book down!