The Silence In Between set in Berlin

Submitted: 25th June 2024

Berlin with Josie Ferguson

Imagine a world where you wake up and a wall has divided your city in two. Imagine that on the other side is your child…This is the premise of this fantastic book.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT PRIZE 2024

Map of locations in The Silence In Between

The Silence in Between Josie Ferguson

BOARDING PASS INFORMATION

Destination : Berlin

Author guide: Josie Ferguson

Genre: historical fiction

Food and drink to accompany: rations

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A novel to transport you to Berlin

Map of locations in The Silence In Between

I have read many a novel set in Berlin at the time of the Berlin wall, but none quite as memorable as this one!

I can’t imagine a wall dividing a city, a city being divided into two practically overnight. That’s bad enough but Lisette in the novel finds herself on one side and her baby on the other. I felt so angry, afraid and nervous on her behalf. The novel starts at the time of WW2 and takes us right up to 1961 when the wall goes up. What a time to return to the German city where so much of history took place.

I found it fascinating to travel through that time with Lisette and experience life as she did. It really puts a human face to the history we read about in books. There are so many layers to this book and it is amazing and powerful in so many ways. There were some particularly raw scenes – war time sexual violence – hard to read about but so important to realise just how far human depravity can go.

This is an epic and powerful read. I really felt as if I had read something that I have never read before. The war in Germany and the Holocaust are topics I have of course read before but not from the angle of a mother and her child on opposite sides of the war and city.