Berlin: Imagine a City - Hardcover

MacLean, Rory

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297868829 ISBN 13: 9780297868828

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014

Synopsis

BERLIN is a city of fragments and ghosts, a laboratory of ideas, the fount of both the brightest and darkest designs of history's most bloody century. The once arrogant capital of Europe was devastated by Allied bombs, divided by a Wall, then reunited and reborn as one of the creative centres of the world. Today it resonates with the echo of lives lived, dreams realized and evils executed. No other city has repeatedly been so powerful, and fallen so low; few other cities have been so shaped and defined by individual imaginations.
Rory MacLean assembles a dazzlingly eclectic cast of Berliners over five centuries, from the wild medieval balladeer to the ambitious prostitute who refashioned herself as a royal princess, from the Scottish mercenary who fought for the Prussian Army to the fearful Communist Party functionary who helped to build the Wall. Alongside them we encounter Marlene Dietrich flaunting her sexuality in The Blue Angel, Goebbels concocting Nazi iconography, Hitler fantasising about the mega-city Germania and David Bowie recording 'Heroes'.
Through these vivid portraits, Rory MacLean masterfully evokes the seen and the unseen, in a richly varied, unexpected tour of Berlin's history. The result is a unique biography of one of the world's most volatile and creative cities.

About this title

About the Author

Rory MacLean is the author of eight previous books, including Stalin's Nose, and has written and presented over 50 programmes for BBC radio.

http://www.rorymaclean.com/homepage.html

http://blog.goethe.de/meet-the-germans/, Rory MacLean has known three Berlins: West Berlin, where he made movies with David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich; East Berlin, where he researched his first best seller STALIN'S NOSE; and the unified capital where he lives and works today. His nine books have challenged and invigorated creative non-fiction writing, and - according to the late John Fowles - are among works that 'marvellously explain why literature still lives'. He has won awards from the Canada Council and the Arts Council of England as well as a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary prize. He has also written and presented over 50 BBC radio programmes and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Edition details

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297868829
• ISBN 13: 9780297868828
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432