Berlin
| Modern Age |
|---|
 Berlin
|
| Content Warning |
|---|
| nudity, sexual content, violence |
World History > Modern Age > WWII >
"The magic in Berlin is in the way Lutes conjures, out of old newspapers and photographs, a city so remote from him in time and space... [Berlin has] an ending so electrifying that I gasped."―New York Times Book Review
During the past two decades, Jason Lutes has quietly created one of the masterworks of the graphic novel golden age. Berlin is one of the high-water marks of the medium: rich in its well-researched historical detail, compassionate in its character studies, and as timely as ever in its depiction of a society slowly awakening to the stranglehold of fascism.
Berlin is an intricate look at the fall of the Weimar Republic through the eyes of its citizens―Marthe Müller, a young woman escaping the memory of a brother killed in World War I, Kurt Severing, an idealistic journalist losing faith in the printed word as fascism and extremism take hold; the Brauns, a family torn apart by poverty and politics. Lutes weaves these characters’ lives into the larger fabric of a city slowly ripping apart.
The city itself is the central protagonist in this historical fiction. Lavish salons, crumbling sidewalks, dusty attics, and train stations: all these places come alive in Lutes’ masterful hand. Weimar Berlin was the world’s metropolis, where intellectualism, creativity, and sensuous liberal values thrived, and Lutes maps its tragic, inevitable decline. Devastatingly relevant and beautifully told, Berlin is one of the great epics of the comics medium.
Emily's Review
I spent the first third of this book confused, because there is a huge cast of characters and the illustrations being so stark, I had a hard time keeping everyone straight. However, once I figured that out, I found the story to be incredibly engaging.
This bind up of three graphic novels tells the story of the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis through the eyes of the citizens of Berlin. Reading this now, in 2025 was an experience - seeing the division in my own country, while reading about the division in Germany in the late 20s and early 30s, and where it led...was frightening. I wish there had been an epilogue. I will be worrying and wondering about the fates of Kurt, Sylvia, and Anna forever.
If you have ever wanted to know what it was like to live in Berlin in the years immediately before WWII, this is a great resource. The author did an amazing job of putting you right there in the middle of it, with characters of all different backgrounds and experiences.
Other Similar Books
Other suggestions on the subject of the World War II (Nazi Germany).
- An Elephant in the Garden (by: Morpurgo, Michael, WWII, MG)
- The Book Thief (by: Zusak, Markus, WWII, YA, UMG)
- When the World Was Ours (by: Kessler, Liz, WWII, Holocaust, UMG, YA)
- Maus II (by: Spiegelman, Art, WWII, YA, A)
- My Long List of Impossible Things (by: Barker, Michelle, WWII, YA, A)
- Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken (by: Tyndall, Nita, WWII, LGBTQ+, YA, A)
- The Berlin Boxing Club (by: Sharenow, Robert, WWII, YA, A)
- White Rose (by: Wilson, Kip, WWII, YA, A)
- The Faithful Spy (by: Hendrix, John, WWII, German Occupation, YA, A)
- Parallel Journeys (by: O'Brien, Tim, WWII, Auschwitz, YA, A)
- Flowers in the Gutter (by: Gaddy, K. R., WWII, YA, A)
- Names in a Jar (by: Gold, Jennifer, Holocaust, WWII, YA, A)
- Maus I (by: Spiegelman, Art, WWII, YA, A)
- Under the Same Stars (by: Bray, Libba, WWII, Berlin Wall, YA, A)
- The Shadow War (by: Smith, Lindsay, WWII, YA)
- The Last Checkmate: A Novel (by: Saab, Gabriella, WWII, Chess, Auschwitz, YA)
- The German Wife (by: Rimmer, Kelly, WWII, Operation Paperclip, A)
- Berlin (by: Lutes, Jason, WWII, Fall of the Weimar Republic, A)