Novel set mainly on MAURITIUS
Autofiction set in and around BERLIN
2nd February 2026
Worlds Apart by Julia Franck, autofiction set in and around Berlin.
TR: Imogen Taylor
Julia’s family members encapsulate the shifting landscape of phenomenal changes that have taken place in the 20th Century across and beyond Berlin. The non-linear story is drawn from the author’s diaries and forms a series of vignettes set within an historical context.
Her great-grandmother was Jewish, her grandmother an artist in Rahnsdorf and her mother a larger than life character, but who ultimately proved emotionally absent for much of the time. Family time in the villa in Pankow was a formal affair, with a sense of menace, as the anti-Jewish movement began to grow. Fast forward to the city’s division and the involvement with the Stasi, which was part and parcel of everyday life.
This is a captivating trawl through generations of one family that offers a valuable insight into political and historical events that shaped the world, all seen largely through the prism of the female members’ lives.
The author brings to life the experience of living in the East of the city and contrasts it with life in the West, coloured with a real sense of displacement, which is mirrored in the construct of the book: the narrative shifts around in time, which means the reader has to concentrate as the moves along its trajectory, the linked stories bringing to life a huge chunk of changing history whilst also adding personal value.
It is quite a big book, in terms of both themes and structure, and is certainly an insightful read for any Germanophile who wants to get under the skin of the country. This has been well translated by Imogen Taylor, who offers an interesting insight into her endeavours at the end of the book.
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