Berlin Stories

A gorgeously jacketed hardcover anthology of classic stories set in Berlin, by an international array of brilliant writers. Berlin has long been a magnet for writers and artists from all over. Since the nineteenth century, when Dostoevsky sought inspiration in the city, to the creative ferment of the 1920s Weimar Republic, when German Expressionism flourished and expats like W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood found a haven there, Berlin has served as a leading cultural capital with an international reputation. Leveled during World War II and then divided by the Berlin Wall for decades, it is a city that has experienced multiple rebirths, and the stories collected here reflect that rich history. Classic German writers like Theodor Fontane, Robert Walser, Alfred Döblin, and Christa Wolf sit alongside writers from elsewhere, including Vladimir Nabokov, Christopher Isherwood, Ian McEwan, Len Deighton, and Kevin Barry.

Edited by Philip Hensher

Foreword   Theodor Fontane, from Effi Briest   Robert Walser, “The Little Berliner”   Alfred Döblin, from Berlin Alexanderplatz   Vladimir Nabokov, from King, Queen, Knave   Erich Kästner, from Going to the Dogs   Ernst Haffner, from Blood Brothers   Irmgard Keun, from The Artificial Silk Girl   Christopher Isherwood, “A Berlin Diary: Winter 1932–3”   Thomas Wolfe, “The Dark Messiah”   Hans Fallada, from Alone in Berlin   Heinz Rein, “Berlin, April 1945”   Peter Schneider, from The Wall Jumper   Thomas Brussig, from Heroes Like Us   Len Deighton, from Funeral in Berlin   Christa Wolf, from They Divided the Sky   Ian McEwan, from The Innocent   Günter Grass, “The Diving Duck”   Wladimir Kaminer, “Business Camouflage”   Chloe Aridjis, from Book of Clouds   Uwe Timm, “The Reichstag, Wrapped”   Kevin Barry, “Berlin Arkonaplatz – My Lesbian Summer”   Jean-Philippe Toussaint, from Television   Jenny Erpenbeck, from Go, Went, Gone