Why a Booktrail?
2000s looking back: If you had 6 days left to live, who would you tell your story to?
The Uncommon Life of Alfred Warner in Six Days
What you need to know before your trail
79-year-old Alfred Warner arrives at Berlin’s busy central train station, to meet his granddaughter Brynja for the first time. When she fails to arrive, Alfred, afraid and alone, is taken in by a stranger, Julia. Worried sick, Alfred discovers that his granddaughter is lying in a coma in a Berlin hospital following an unexplained accident and so Julia insists he stays at her home for Christmas. Alfred becomes increasingly anxious and announces that his time is running out and that he has only six days left to live.
And he has a story he has to tell….before it’s too late.
Travel Guide
Berlin and the war
Alfred has a secret which has plagued him his whole life and one which he has to tell someone about to make sense of it all.
His life is one of turmoil and despair – tragically orphaned at a young age, he suffered a terrifying ordeal at the hands of the Nazis as he grew up during the rise of the Third Reich. Being forcibly conscripted into the German army had a grave and long lasting effect on him as it did everyone who suffered the same fate. The time he was imprisoned in a POW camp in Scotland also weighs heavily on his mind. His life has certainly not been ordinary or common in any way. He has not been alone through all this however, but that is part of the problem as he soon explains.
Germany and live in Berlin for boys of Alfred’s age was a tough and brutal time. They were forced from one place to another, from one duty to another and forced to do what they didn’t want to do. Spending time in an orphanage, being in the city when the Olympics rolled into town but where Jews were not allowed, and the heartbreaking reality of knowing Jews and have having Jewish friends although well documented is heart felt and personal to Albert here.
Modern day Berlin sits over flashbacks to 1930s Berlin to contrast the changes in the city, the stench of bombs which still lingers in many people’s minds and how the black and white war images cast shadows when held over the sun of today. The Jewish Museum is a good place to start your own story.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Uncommon Life of Alfred Warner in Six Days
Author/Guide: Juliet Conlin Destination: Berlin Departure Time: 2000s, 1930s
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