The Wall Jumper

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Unique novella that captures the mood of Cold war Berlin like no other - worth considering connecting publication in some way with 9th November anniversary of fall of the Berlin wall in '89.

Berlin before the fall of the Wall is a city divided, yet its ordinary residents find ways to live and survive on both sides. There is Robert, teller of barroom anecdotes over beer and vodka, adjusting to a new life in the west; Pommerer, trying to outwit the system in the east; the unnamed narrator, who 'escapes' back-and-forth to collect stories; his beguiling, exiled lover Lena; the three boys who defect to watch Hollywood films; and the man who leaps across the Wall again and again - simply because he cannot help himself. 
 
All are, in their different ways, wall jumpers, trying to lose themselves but still trapped wherever they go. Ultimately, the walls inside their heads prove to be more powerful than any man-made barrier ...

Peter Schneider

Peter Schneider makes the city come alive. He knows his stuff and shares it beautifully, elegantly, generously and informatively. Berlin has found its bard

Breyten Breytenbach, author of 'Notes from the Middle World'

Enlightening. Berlin resident Schneider unearths the city's charms and hazards . . . [to] reveal an authentic city that does not bother being more lively than beautiful

Marvelous . . . creates, in very few words, the unreal reality of Berlin

Schneider's description of the Berlin Wall from both sides . . . is the ultimate depiction of this structure. Nothing more need be said

Peter Schneider, a novelist and essayist who knows and loves Berlin like few other living German writers, gives an intimate picture of the city's transformation

The inside story of the city then and now

Berlin Now is stuffed with glorious anecdotes about the rows over architecture, infrastructure, sexuality and morality in a city forced to weld itself together since 1989

As rich, vibrant and snappy as its subject

In 30-odd short pieces on the city's architecture, its immigrant communities, its famous night life and its sexual mores, Mr. Schneider tries to answer this question: If Berlin is not beautiful, why is it so beloved? To his credit, he avoids the easy answers

A gathering of illuminations, a button box of participant observations . . . Schneider is an old-school flaneur, a psychogeographer who can screw down very close upon a subject. He finds a wide scattering of exceptional nooks and crannies whose critical mass may well be the city's soul

Illuminating. Page after page yields surprising nuggets of wisdom . . . Schneider entrances with his off-the-beaten-track forays. His final picture is a detailed and absorbing portrait of an unfinished city that has all the dynamism of a complete one

[An] engrossing book, which attempts what's practically impossible - describing the essence of what makes Berlin so Berlin

The author of The Wall Jumper presents his collected musings about the city that has inspired and perplexed him since he was first seduced by West Berlin as a young man in the early 1960s. Berlin is not traditionally beautiful, he notes; it is a hodgepodge of cultural fits and starts . . . It is a city scarred by its history but also proud of its weirdness, its resilience, and its condition of constant change. In the end, Schneider seems to suggest, liveliness is far more important than beauty

An intriguing journey through Berlin by a longtime interested observer

The Rise of the City and the Fall of the Wall

Over the last five decades, no city has changed more than Berlin: divided in 1961, reunited in 1989, it has become Europe's most vibrant melting-pot of artists, immigrants and entrepreneurs. Blending memoir, history and reportage, this legendary Berliner takes us behind the scenes there - looking at everything from life under the Stasi and the difference between East and West Berliners' sex-lives to the city's night-life, politics and hidden quirks - and reveals what makes Berlin the uniquely fascinating place it is.

Peter Schneider

Praise for Berlin Now

Peter Schneider makes the city come alive. He knows his stuff and shares it beautifully, elegantly, generously and informatively. Berlin has found its bard

Enlightening. Berlin resident Schneider unearths the city's charms and hazards . . . [to] reveal an authentic city that does not bother being more lively than beautiful

Wonderful

Peter Schneider makes the city come alive. He knows his stuff and shares it beautifully, elegantly, generously and informatively. Berlin has found its bard

Enlightening. Berlin resident Schneider unearths the city's charms and hazards . . . [to] reveal an authentic city that does not bother being more lively than beautiful

Wonderful

Peter Schneider makes the city come alive. He knows his stuff and shares it beautifully, elegantly, generously and informatively. Berlin has found its bard

Enlightening. Berlin resident Schneider unearths the city's charms and hazards . . . [to] reveal an authentic city that does not bother being more lively than beautiful

Wonderful

Books by Peter Schneider

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