i think you need to have a basic understanding of germany from the 50s to the present day to understand this book and i don't have that. atm i'm doing an essay about revolutions for uni and 1989 kept appearing and then i picked up this book from where it had been sitting on my bedroom floor since christmas and look! communism! 1989! and yet i still have no idea how to answer my essay question or how to follow this book. that's not to say it wasn't good. it's detailed and kind of rambly and i didn't really have any attachment to the characters but i was mostly interested in what was happening, especially the 2001 sections. the main character is called sasha! okay it's really alexander but his family call him sasha. i never read books with my name in them, even if this is a different spelling from mine, so this was a real thrill.

i had been so interested and excited to read this and it just really fell flat for me. maybe when i research germany, the berlin wall, and its reunification i'll come back and enjoy it a little more.