Oranges for Christmas

Description

The War is over, but for Sabine the fight for freedom has only just begun. 1961. The Cold War. Berlin is an occupied city - the Western Allies in the West; the Soviets in the East. Berliners go about their daily lives as best they can, until one day they wake up to discover their city has been torn in half by barbed wire - great tangled coils of it snaking through the city. Within days East German soldiers are turning the barbed wire into a solid wall. The Berlin Wall. 17 year old Sabine lives in East Berlin with her mother and younger sister. Sabine's brother, Dieter, lives in West Berlin. The family is divided and they have no hope of being reunited. The only answer is for Sabine, her sister and mother to escape Communist East Berlin. But the Berlin Wall is guarded by armed soldiers who are operating a shoot to kill policy and almost everyone is under surveillance by the secret police, the Stasi. The smallest error can have you arrested and interrogated. Even imprisoned. Can Dieter find a way to get his family out of East Berlin? Can Sabine escape the clutches of the secret police? Can she lead her mother and sister to safety? And who, amongst her friends and neighbours, can she trust? Oranges for Christmas is an historical thriller that will keep you gripped to the end. Author Q&A Q - What inspired you to write Oranges for Christmas? A - I studied German at university and in 1987 I spent three weeks in West Berlin. I was fascinated and shocked by this vibrant city with the Wall running through the middle of it. From viewing platforms in the West you could see the death strip and the guard towers - this was the Cold War for real. I remember standing on a platform in West Berlin and looking across the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate. One day my friend, who is a West Berliner, and I travelled to East Berlin. This would not have been possible for West Berliners in 1961 when the Wall first went up. We travelled on the U-Bahn, the underground, through a series of g