You can read this book as intimate history, or as poetry, or simply as a tool for learning another language. Many of these writers have had long and successful careers as writers, editors, film producers. It will broaden and deepen your understanding of the world. Although Berlin is no longer a divided city, the unique situation of two centers of creative activity side by side stitched life and art together intensely. Everyday activities became political; ideology clashed with economics-and love. The stories and poems in this book-poems are bilingual German and English-give glimpses of this...