Stasiland: from the Miles Franklin Prize-winning author of All That I Am

Description

Anna Funder's Samuel Johnson Prize-winning Stasiland is an Australian classic, the definitive account of tyranny and resistance in the former East Germany. WINNER OF THE BBC FOUR SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 'Fascinating, entertaining, hilarious, horrifying and very important.' Tom Hanks 'Exhilirating ... The kind of book that makes us love non-fiction.' Helen Garner 'Unforgettable.' The Sydney Morning Herald 'Brilliant ... a masterpiece.' Sunday Times Truth can be stranger - and more heartbreaking and hilarious - than fiction. In this now classic work, Funder tells extraordinary stories from the most perfected surveillance state of all time, the former East Germany. She meets Miriam, condemned as an enemy of the state at sixteen, and Frau Paul, for whom the Berlin Wall 'went through my heart'. She drinks with the legendary 'Mik Jegger' of the East, once declared by the authorities to 'no longer exist'. And she meets ex-Stasi - men who spied on their families and friends - still loyal to the deposed regime as they await the next revolution. Stasiland is a brilliant, timeless portrait of a Kafkaesque world as gripping as any thriller. In a world of total surveillance, its celebration of human conscience and courage is as potent as ever. ______________________________________________ 'Stasiland demonstrates that great, original reporting is still possible ... A heartbreaking beautifully written book. A classic for sure.' Claire Tomalin, The Guardian UK 'Colourful, intensely observed, well executed, with lots of black humor and disturbing undertones.' Kirkus Reviews 'Filtered through Funder's own keen perspective, these dramatic tales highlight the courage that ordinary people can display in torturous circumstances.' Publishers Weekly

Anna Funder is the author of Stasiland and All That I Am - both international bestsellers, published in over twenty-four countries - and the novella The Girl with the Dogs. Stasiland, hailed as a 'classic', tells true stories of ordinary people who heroically resisted the communist dictatorship of East Germany, and of others who worked for the Stasi. In 2004 Stasiland won the UK's premier award for non-fiction, the Samuel Johnson Prize, and was a finalist for many other awards. Anna's novel All That I Am is an homage to four German anti-Hitler activists living bravely but precariously in exile in London in the 1930s. All That I Am won many literary awards including Australia's most prestigious, the Miles Franklin Prize, and was a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. It spent over a year on the bestseller lists, was BBC Book of the Week and Book at Bedtime, and The Times Book of the Month. Originally trained as an international human rights lawyer, Anna is a former DAAD Fellow in Berlin, Australia Council Fellow, and Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. She lives in Sydney.