Sarah Brotherhood Chapman

I enjoyed this coming-of-age story set in West and East Berlin in 1977. The setting was very detailed and believable; it's obvious the author lived there for a while. (I'm a little familiar with Berlin from a couple of visits--one in 1985, to both East and West-- and reading a lot about the period.) Two American girls, Kate and Amy, become friends while attending the West Berlin American school; their parents are diplomats, and Amy lives in the East where her father works. Kate is new at the school and falls in with Amy's friends, including the handsome Will. She joins the track team and enjoys the wild night life of '70s Berlin, and chafes under the restrictive diplomatic and regime rules. But as she grows closer to Will, on a fateful trip to visit Amy in East Berlin Kate meets Michael, an East German young man, and finds herself attracted to him. Alternating chapters are told in first person POV by Kate and in the 3rd person POV for Michael and his sister Annika. In contrast to the loving home life of Kate, Michael and Annika are barely surviving in dark dreary East Berlin. Michael's mother is dead and his father imprisoned, and his brother was killed crossing the Berlin Wall. Twenty-one year old Annika is in a horrible predicament: she was raped by an East German official and is now pregnant with his child, which he insists she will surrender to him when it is born. The storylines converge as Kate arranges more visits to meet with Michael, although she is torn over what to do about Will, and she gets involved in Annika's situation. A very dramatic ending had me turning pages to see what happened next! The author's note at the end explains how the story came to be, as her friends would ask her how she came to be lifelong friends with a former East German guy; I would love to learn more from her about just how much of these teen escapades really happened to her!

I received a copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early reviewers program in exchange for my review. (And it was shipped from Germany! Autographed! Very cool!)… (más)

Set in 1977 during the middle of the Cold War, this YA book deals with romance, friendship, and a little bit of adventure. Kate is a diplomat's daughter and finds herself the new kid in school in West Berlin. She becomes friends with Amy, another new student, and gets involved with different groups at school while becoming more curious about what lies on the other side of the Wall. This book features some LGBTQ themes. It should also be noted as a content warning that a character is raped in the book and the reader sees how that rape affects the character.… (más)

Books about the Cold War have been my favorite for years. Very little is written about it for teens. They know almost nothing. I jumped at the chance to read this book so I could get it into the hands of my students. We have Kate who is. and American. As the daughter of a diplomat she moves a lot. This time they are in West Berlin. She meets Amy, whose father is a diplomat stationed on the east side of Berlin. Amy spends a lot of time at Kate’s house. Kate goes to visit Amy and meets Michael. Michael and his sister are barely surviving on the east side. Of course Kate and Michael meet. This is dangerous for Michael and his sister as the Stasi watch everything.
I enjoyed this book because the author is the daughter of a diplomat who had similar experiences to that of Kate. I enjoyed this also because I worked with two teachers and taught their daughter. They would tell me stories of living in embassies around the world, especially Russia. Their daughter at times was clueless as to how things actually worked in those countries because they were sheltered from a lot of the things people in those country went through, all because they were a diplomat’s child. I highly recommend this book. I believe it should be on every high school shelf. I won a copy from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Giveaway.

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Absolutely enjoyed "Shadow of the West" by Sarah Brotherhood Chapman. I was fortunate enough to have been born in West Germany and spent the majority of my childhood there. My mother is German, so I have also taken many trips to this lovely country. My cousin's IT company purchased a company in the former East German sector of Dresden and I was able to travel there with her a couple of years after the Wall came down. It was such an educational experience, and experience that I will never forget. With that being said, Ms. Chapman did a truly amazing job of describing how Germany was during the 1970's. I loved that she chose to writer her novel through the eyes of high school students and young adults. This is a great novel for anyone that wants to have a better understanding of this time in history, or wants to relive this time in our history.
Looking forward to reading additional books by this amazing author!… (más)