JUNE 2024: The Silence in Between by Josie Ferguson – BERLIN

1st June 2024

The Silence In Between by Josie Ferguson, novel set in two seismic periods of Berlin’s history.

In the Author’s Afterword, she states: “Writing historical fiction comes with a responsibility to accurately portray an important time in history, and though my characters are fictional, they represent the many women who lived through both the Rape of Berlin in 1945 and the brutal division of Berlin in 1961“.

This is the story of Lisette growing up during WW2, having to survive the gradual destruction of Berlin. The war culminates in the invasion of the Russian troops, who were hell bent on destroying the women in any way they could – women and children were the only citizens left in the city and the women in particular came to symbolise to them the hell that they had been forced to endure on the Eastern Front. Revenge, for them, was sweet.

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Lisette, because of the trauma she suffered during those years, marries a war veteran and goes on to give birth to her daughter, Elly. Fast forward to August 1961 and Lisette has given birth to a second child, a little boy, who isn’t well, so Lisette takes him over to a good hospital in the Western sector. She returns home to briefly recuperate and during that very night the Berlin Wall is erected. 13 August 1961. Mother and son are now separated by concrete, guards and a soon to be implemented death strip.

Elly, who has never felt particularly loved by her mother, decides that she has the wherewithal to try and reunite the two, but it is a dangerous prospect, given the Stasi and the border controls. She has a musical gift which means she can judge people by the musical resonance she perceives in those whom she meets, as well as being a gifted piano teacher, and this serves her well as she weaves her way towards her goal.

This is a well researched novel that will set a good and credible context for the city as it is today. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it. The ARC copy cover (pictured left) is so different to finished version that will appear in bookshops and I think the final choice is a superlative choice. This novel deserves to be widely read.