Stasiland | Granta

  • Published: 26/08/2021
  • ISBN: 9781783787340
  • Granta Books
  • 304 pages

Stasiland

Anna Funder

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In Stasiland, winner of the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize, Anna Funder tells extraordinary tales from the underbelly of the former East Germany, a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally overnight, and one in fifty East Germans were informing on their countrymen and women. She meets Miriam, who as a sixteen-year-old might have started the Third World War, visits the man who painted the line which became the Berlin Wall and gets drunk with the legendary ‘Mik Jegger’ of the East, who the authorities once declared – to his face – to ‘no longer exist’.

These rigorously researched, tenderly told stories of life inside East Germany won the Samuel Johnson prize a decade ago... Funder illuminates her subjects with humanity... remarkable investigative journalism

Arifa Akbar, Independent

Anna Funder's Stasiland demonstrates that great, original reporting is still possible. She found her subject in East Germany, went for it bravely and delivers the goods in a heartbreaking, beautifully written book. A classic for sure

Claire Tomalin, Guardian

A brilliant and necessary book about oppression and history ... Here is someone who knows how to tell the truth

Rachel Cusk, Evening Standard

The Author

Anna Funder was born in Melbourne in 1966. She has worked as an international lawyer and a radio and television producer. In 1997 she was writer-in-residence at the Australia Centre in Potsdam. She lives in Sydney with her husband and family. Her first novel Stasiland was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2003 and in Australia for The Age Book of the Year and the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards for non-fiction. Stasiland won the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2004.

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