Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

by Anna Funder

A morning drunk walks on the ground like it might not hold him.

black bread

German Democratic Republic.

Leipzig was the hub of what everyone now calls die Wende—the Turning Point. The Wende was the peaceful revolution against the Communist dictatorship in East Germany,

The Stasi

the Prague Spring

Some people are comfortable talking about their lives, as if they can make sense of the progression of random events that made them what they are. This involves a kind of forward-looking faith in life; a conviction that cause and effect are linked, and that they are themselves more than the sum of their past.

denuding

To remember or forget—which is healthier? To demolish it or to fence it off? To dig it up, or leave it lie in the ground?

Walpurgisnacht, the night when witches meet to revel with the Devil.

manna