Berlin Now: The Rise of the City and the Fall of the Wall

Description

Blending memoir, history and reportage, this legendary Berliner takes us behind the scenes there - looking at everything from life under the Stasi and the difference between East and West Berliners' sex-lives to the city's night-life, politics and hidden quirks - and reveals what makes Berlin the uniquely fascinating place it is. In Berlin Now, and on the 25th Anniversary of the fall of the Wall, a legendary Berliner tells the inside story of the city. Over the last five decades, no other city has changed more than Berlin. Divided in 1961, reunited in 1989, it has morphed over the last twenty-five years into Europe's most vibrant melting-pot of artists, immigrants and entrepreneurs. Pieces of the wall are collected around the world. Blending memoir, history, anecdote and reportage, this legendary Berliner takes us behind the scenes - from wrenching stories of life under the Stasi, to the difference between East and West Berliners' sex-lives, to a present-day investigation of its arts scene, night-life, tumultuous politics and hidden quirks - revealing what makes Berlin the uniquely fascinating place it is. Peter Schneider makes the city come alive. He knows his stuff and shares it beautifully, elegantly, generously and informatively. Berlin has found its bard'Breyten Breytenbach, author of 'Notes from the Middle World' Praise for The Wall Jumper- 'Marvelous . . . creates, in very few words, the unreal reality of Berlin' Salman Rushdie, New York Times Book Review 'Schneider's description of the Berlin wall from both sides . . . is the ultimate depiction of this structure. Nothing more need be said' Werner Herzog 'Wonderful' Ian McEwan Peter Schneider was born in L beck, Germany, in 1940, and has lived in Berlin on and off since the 1960s, when he was a key spokesperson for its radical student movement. Renowned as a novelist and essayist, he is now the author of more than twenty books, including the Penguin Modern Classic The Wall Jumper. He has taught at many universities, including Stanford, Princeton and Harvard, and written for many international newspapers, including Der Spiegel, The New York Times, Le Monde and La Repubblica.

Peter Schneider was born in Lubeck, Germany, in 1940, and has lived in Berlin on and off since the 1960s, when he was a key spokesperson for its radical student movement. Renowned as a novelist and essayist, he is the author of more than twenty books, including the Penguin Modern Classic The Wall Jumper. He has taught at many universities, including Stanford, Princeton and Harvard, and written for many international newspapers, including Der Spiegel, The New York Times, Le Monde and La Repubblica.

Peter Schneider makes the city come alive. He knows his stuff and shares it beautifully, elegantly, generously and informatively. Berlin has found its bard -- Breyten Breytenbach, author of 'Notes from the Middle World' Enlightening. Berlin resident Schneider unearths the city's charms and hazards . . . [to] reveal an authentic city that does not bother being more lively than beautiful * Publishers Weekly * Wonderful -- Ian McEwan (on 'The Wall Jumper') Marvelous . . . creates, in very few words, the unreal reality of Berlin -- Salman Rushdie (on 'The Wall Jumper') Schneider's description of the Berlin Wall from both sides . . . is the ultimate depiction of this structure. Nothing more need be said -- Werner Herzog (on 'The Wall Jumper') Peter Schneider, a novelist and essayist who knows and loves Berlin like few other living German writers, gives an intimate picture of the city's transformation * Financial Times * The inside story of the city then and now * Stylist * Berlin Now is stuffed with glorious anecdotes about the rows over architecture, infrastructure, sexuality and morality in a city forced to weld itself together since 1989 * New Statesman * As rich, vibrant and snappy as its subject * Wanderlust Magazine * In 30-odd short pieces on the city's architecture, its immigrant communities, its famous night life and its sexual mores, Mr. Schneider tries to answer this question: If Berlin is not beautiful, why is it so beloved? To his credit, he avoids the easy answers * Wall Street Journal * A gathering of illuminations, a button box of participant observations . . . Schneider is an old-school flaneur, a psychogeographer who can screw down very close upon a subject. He finds a wide scattering of exceptional nooks and crannies whose critical mass may well be the city's soul * Barnes and Noble * Illuminating. Page after page yields surprising nuggets of wisdom . . . Schneider entrances with his off-the-beaten-track forays. His final picture is a detailed and absorbing portrait of an unfinished city that has all the dynamism of a complete one * New Criterion * [An] engrossing book, which attempts what's practically impossible - describing the essence of what makes Berlin so Berlin * Christian Science Monitor * The author of The Wall Jumper presents his collected musings about the city that has inspired and perplexed him since he was first seduced by West Berlin as a young man in the early 1960s. Berlin is not traditionally beautiful, he notes; it is a hodgepodge of cultural fits and starts . . . It is a city scarred by its history but also proud of its weirdness, its resilience, and its condition of constant change. In the end, Schneider seems to suggest, liveliness is far more important than beauty * Booklist [STARRED REVIEW] * An intriguing journey through Berlin by a longtime interested observer * Kirkus *