The File: A Personal History - Softcover

Ash, Timothy Garton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679777857 ISBN 13: 9780679777854

Publisher: Vintage, 1998

Synopsis

"Eloquent, aware and scrupulous . . . a rich and instructive examination of the Cold War past." --The New York Times
In 1978 a romantic young Englishman took up residence in Berlin to see what that divided city could teach him about tyranny and freedom. Fifteen years later Timothy Garton Ash--who was by then famous for his reportage of the downfall of communism in Central Europe--returned. This time he had come to look at a file that bore the code-name "Romeo." The file had been compiled by the Stasi, the East German secret police, with the assistance of dozens of informers. And it contained a meticulous record of Garton Ash's earlier life in Berlin.
In this memoir, Garton Ash describes what it was like to rediscover his younger self through the eyes of the Stasi, and then to go on to confront those who actually informed against him to the secret police. Moving from document to remembrance, from the offices of British intelligence to the living rooms of retired Stasi officers, The File is a personal narrative as gripping, as disquieting, and as morally provocative as any fiction by George Orwell or Graham Greene. And it is all true.
"In this painstaking, powerful unmasking of evil, the wretched face of tyranny is revealed." --Philadelphia Inquirer

About this title

Review:

Praise for Timothy Garton Ash:

The Polish Revolution (Winner, Somerset Maugham Prize, 1983)

‘A masterpiece.’
Times Literary Supplement.

We the People (1990)

‘It is with minimal exaggeration that I state that, in the future, there will probably be streets in warsaw, Prague and Budapest bearing the name of Timothy Garton Ash.’
Karel Kyncl, Independent.

‘He is our best informed and beadiest commentator on Europe – eloquent, sceptical, fearless, with a tinge of idealism so wary as to be acceptable.’
Craig Raine

Book Description:

Timothy Garton Ash lived behind the Berlin Wall and joined the millions spied on by the Stasi. In 1993, he gained access to his Stasi file. Here he tells his story, in a classic memoir of dictatorship and betrayal.

'A chilling portrait of treachery and compromise... bravely and beautifully written' John le Carré

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0679777857
• ISBN 13: 9780679777854
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272