AustLit

'With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 went the culture and identity of millions of people. Through the story of Michael Smith, an Australian who moves to East Germany in 1981, a different side of communism is shown, a more positive side focusing on the people who live there, good people who have no ideological position. Michael marries an East Berliner and begins to raise a family. He further educates himself and becomes a teacher whereas he had been previously a mechanic. His life is fulfilling and satisfying; he succeeds in ways he could never have hoped to in Australia. The fall of the wall brings his happiness to a crashing halt, especially because he had supported the protest to reform but feared a selling-out to the West. For him, the unification is an end and not a beginning. He cannot reconcile that his happiness has been taken away from him by the West. His secret life as a Stasi (secret police) informer has him riddled with guilt. He uproots his family back to Australia, and to a much better life than the one he had left behind, but not nearly as satisfying as it had been in East Germany.' (Source: Author's blurb)