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Stasiland  By  cover art

Stasiland

By: Anna Funder
Narrated by: Denica Fairman
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Publisher's summary

Anna Funder’s Samuel Johnson Prize-winning Stasiland is an Australian classic, the definitive account of tyranny and resistance in the former East Germany.

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited and East Germany ceased to exist.

Anna Funder’s best-selling Stasiland brings us extraordinary tales of real lives in the former East Germany. She meets Miriam, who tried to escape to West Berlin as a 16-year-old; hears the heartbreaking story of Frau Paul, who was separated from her young baby by the Berlin Wall; and gets drunk with the legendary ‘Mik Jegger’ of the East, once declared by the authorities - to his face - ‘no longer to exist’. And she meets the Stasi men themselves, still proud of their surveillance methods. Funder’s powerful account of that brutal world has become a contemporary classic.

©2002 Anna Funder (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"Funder is a superb interviewer...she truly excels in the rendering of her sessions with former Stasi employees." (Sunday Times)

What listeners say about Stasiland

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great read to get a sense of like in the GDR

I enjoyed the ordinary stories that where at times totally unbelievable. get lost in stasiland.

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  • Bools
  • 01-20-23

OK but not serious history or oral history.

Some interesting anecdotes and mini bios but all too subjective. The reader aggravates this with the comedy caricature voices for ex Stasi, and anyone not mesmerised by the post unification experiences. There is more than enough for which East Germany can be criticised, no need to lay it on quite so thick.

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  • Tsarina
  • 07-07-22

struggling to listen to the narrator...

...as she's rather too "actorly". Some of the direct speech quotes are excruciating. That said, the lives told in this book, and the history of East Germany, are fascinating. I shall try and finish listening to it but this book for me would have been better read than listened to. Tbh if I could have returned it, I would have, and then read the book.

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  • Richard Jack
  • 12-20-20

A must read/listen

This book gives a humane insight into the horrors that affected the citizens of DDR. The extreme big brother surveillance. The arbitrary decisions made by local Stasi officials, that ruined the lives of the ordinary people. It is important to remember what actually happened. Especially since these things sometimes tends to be romanticized by some people. People who do not know the facts of history.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 06-19-23

Very interesting

Wow sounds like it was a difficult place to live thanks for the book lads

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  • Stuart Turner
  • 06-19-23

Personal look at the aftermath of east Germany

As a west German I learnt a lot about individual experience of the stasi and how people live with the past

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  • Naomi
  • 06-07-23

Compelling

I just wanted to keep listening. Some truly horrific accounts of a regime turning in on itself and taking its people with it. Well worth a listen. Overall, I liked the narration, despite a few quirks here and there.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 04-30-23

A fascinating glimpse behind the wall

This book should absolutely be part of the school curriculum, but they wouldn’t do that because lays bare the true horrors and paranoia of Marxism.

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  • Glyn
  • 03-07-23

The narrator was amazing and made me feel I was there.

Fairly new to audio books but listened to enough to know it’s all about the narrator. Denica weaves the spoken word with seeable descriptions and transposes the emotions of the characters into the listener world. I really enjoyed this audio book thank you.

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  • Jamesup
  • 03-30-22

fascinating take on a moment in history

fascinating take on life for the victims of the Stasi and stasi operatives and officers in the near aftermath of the DDR.

One flaw, please get the narrator a glass of water, and then edit out the bits of her clearing her mouth! i don’t want to listen ti drymouth.

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  • Alex Lee
  • 08-25-21

The social history of stasi terror

There are few books that focus specifically on the GDR and this is worth your time. The author is personable and sympathetic to the victims of the regime. My only criticism is that she doesn't really interview credible people who are ostalgic. Everyone who she interviews who have these views tend to be stasi men or crackpots.

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  • Jeremy Buttsworth
  • 07-15-21

Could not stop listening to this captivating account of the peoples lives under communism

Anna has interviewed and brought to life the personal stories of peoples lives who lived in East Germany whilst it was a communist state , the German Democratic Republic and where their lives are now. I found it utterly captivating and many times I listened in disbelief the torment the state inflicted on individuals. Astonishing as well was those who to this day worked for the state and long for the old days.. still fanatical .
The stories are beautifully told and superbly narrated.
It seems so relevant now as we grapple with China . It’s made me think of the State controlling The individual and how sinister this can become .
Well done Anna .. a wonderful book , I absolutely loved it. Thank you .

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 03-07-22

so many lessons in one book

Stasiland was written very much like a personal journey by the researcher. very accessible dark and interesting so much casts shadows on the behaviour we observe today the cost of an official fiction perhaps.

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  • Katelyn Clarke
  • 09-24-23

Top notch

I enjoyed this book so much for the narrative of the non-fiction content and the subject matter. Such an excellent story/history telling.

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  • Hayley
  • 09-21-23

I learnt so much

Fascinating. It’s easy to forget this all existed and in my lifetime too. It’s good to learn and be reminded from a real life experience point of view.

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  • Paul
  • 09-06-23

Excellent book

Great story and good honest view into the real world of the GDR post 1989

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  • Anonymous User
  • 07-07-22

Fascinating, but let down by audio narration

This is a wonderfully written and fascinating book, but unfortunately the narrator does an annoyingly stupid deep voice whenever she's portraying a man. Honestly, it's like she's reading a fairy tale to children, putting on a bad ogre voice.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 03-08-22

Please get another narrator

This is one of my favourite books but sadly unlistenable with an English narrator who sounds like she is reading a jolly hockey sticks version of Harry Potter. Anna Funder would be top choice of narrator of course but any Australian woman - any woman - with gravitas for this beautiful spare prose would do.

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