Berlin Stories — Philip Hensher

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. Levelled 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 Doblin, Lion Feuchtwanger, and Christa Wolf sit alongside writers from elsewhere, including Vladimir Nabokov, Christopher Isherwood, Ian McEwan, Len Deighton, and Kevin Barry.