Escape...Beyond the Lindens

Global Book Award Winner (Bronze Medal): Imagine a country in which one in six of the population is either an official member of the hated secret police or are hapless informers forced to spy on their friends and families. To escape from their repressed society, some sought any means possible to do so. While some were successful, most were not. If found, all those involved in the escape attempt were sent to a feared secret prison where they were interrogated and possibly tortured, mentally and physically. These types of stories did happen and not too long ago. This gripping fictionalized account follows several families and individuals who risked their lives in their escape attempts in the months leading to the historic moment that the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
Ari and Liesel Gold from Hanover in West Germany in 1989 visited their family in East Germany following their recent wedding. On their return, Liesel’s cousin was hidden under the back seat of their car in a lead-lined box. When he was caught, Theo, Ari, and Liesel were not only charged with the escape attempt but they were also charged as spies when secret documents were found. Consequently, they were sent to a secret prison operated by the hated secret police, the Ministry of State Security, or Stasi.
Around the same time, a bus filled with students from England, including American Graham Fletcher and his Canadian wife, Cassie, were on a university workshop trip visiting with other students and professors from Humbolt University and the Technical University in East Berlin. But their story took a turn when the Professor from Manchester and his proteges attempt to help a genius-level family member of his to escape from East Berlin.
The months before the historic moment on November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall was opened to tens of thousands fleeing to the West, saw a society filled with anxiety and repression, but also hope for a better future. “Escape…Beyond the Lindens” offers a view into that period from a fictionalized perspective of those seeking to escape.