No Man's Land by Michael Califra
1989: Richard, an expatriate American, is working a profitable yet pointless job selling software for a small U.S. firm in West Berlin. Katarina Weber is a married mother whose hedonistic escapades help distract him from the emptiness of his existence. When Richard ventures beyond the No Man's Land an into East Berlin in order to fulfill a personal obligation, he meets Traudi Franzke, a young nurse addicted to the communist ideals inherited at an early age from her father. The ensuing relationship, separated from reality by the notorious Wall, exposes beliefs long since betrayed but clung to, nevertheless. Throughout that momentous year, Richard straddles the two distinct worlds of East and West Berlin, moving between cynicism and hope, until events send them careening toward a collision, completing a journey from an age of ideologies to the end of history. A ribald romp through a pivotal time and place; an intimate portrait of a revolution; a searing indictment of the human condition, No Man's Land reveals the farce and tragedy of Germany's division and reunification through a lens not found in any history book. In brisk, vivid prose, Califra masterfully captures Wendezeit Berlin; the arrogant excesses and self-indulgence of the democratic West flaunting its wealth, as well as the dysfunction, frustration and repression in the totalitarian East as they existed, side by side, in one city on the cusp of dramatic change. A stimulating page-turner about a major turning point in history. -Publishers Weekly
Michael Califra lived and worked in Germany, mostly in Berlin, from 1986 to 1998 where he wrote the novel, No Man's Land. When he first considered writing about the Berlin it was still divided. The challenge then was to render in fiction a situation more absurdly fictional than any he could imagine. When the Wall fell and Germany and Berlin were reunified, it soon became clear that the city he knew would be quickly erased, just as the Berlin of the Kaiser had been overtaken by Weimar Berlin, which had then been wiped away by Hitler's capital, which was then replaced by Cold War cities of East and West Berlin. Wanting to document the place he knew would soon dissolve into history was the motivation behind writing his novel. The author has also executive produced feature films starring such Hollywood talent as Rosario Dawson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Paul Rudd and Winona Ryder.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780692342541 |
| ISBN 10 | 0692342540 |
| Title | No Man's Land |
| Author | Michael Califra |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Hadrian |
| Year published | 2015-12-16 |
| Number of pages | 332 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |