Anna Funder tells astonishing stories from the underbelly of the former East Germany. She meets Miriam, a sixteen year old "Enemy of the State"; Anja, whose romance with an Italian computer salesman was to have consequences she could never have foreseen; and the legendary "Mik Jegger" of the East, declared by the authorities to "no longer exist".
As her narrative builds Funder records heartbreaking stories of bravery and betrayal, of suffering and stoicism amid the daily chaos and sudden, harsh beauty of Berlin, a place some people are trying to remember, and other just as hard to forget.
'Stasiland' is a brilliant debut by a prodigiously gifted writer, a remarkable book of travel, history and biography that reads like a documentary novel.
