We chat with author Bryn Turnbull about The Berlin Apartment, which is a sweeping love story follows a young couple whose lives are irrevocably changed when they’re separated overnight by the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Hi, Bryn! Welcome back! How has the past two years been since we last spoke?
Thank you! They’ve been busy in the best possible way. I’m at the end of a four-books-in-five-years writing cycle and I’m looking forward to a little downtime.
Your latest novel, The Berlin Apartment, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Gripping. Heartfelt. Tender. Romantic. Redemptive.
What can readers expect?
Readers will meet Uli Neumann and Lise Bauer, star-crossed lovers whose hours-old engagement gets interrupted when the Berlin Wall goes up between them. Told from both Uli and Lise’s perspectives, the story charts life in capitalist West Berlin and socialist East Germany as the couple fights to put their love story back on track and reunite. Readers can expect heart-pounding action, bitter betrayal, Cold War intrigue and a meant-to-be romance for the ages.
Where did the inspiration for The Berlin Apartment come from?
The inspiration for this story came from a podcast I listened to during the pandemic, called Intrigue: Tunnel 29, which chronicled the real-life efforts of Free University students who dug beneath the Berlin Wall to rescue friends and family who wanted to escape from East Berlin. The idea of a group of twenty-year-olds who defied the Stasi enthralled me: I knew I wanted to tell their story through the eyes of a couple trapped on opposite sides of the Cold War conflict.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I’ve found that in each of my novels a side character has crept up and played a much larger role in the story than I’d originally planned. In The Berlin Apartment, I ended up falling in love with Inge, Lise’s best friend – a Swedish medical student who joins Uli’s quest to bring Lise across the barbed wire.
Can you tell us about your research process for The Berlin Apartment?
Unlike my other novels, which take place further back in the 20th century, this one is much more immediate — the Wall came down in my lifetime, and there’s such a wealth of eyewitness accounts and personal stories to draw from. One particular area of interest for me was research into East Germany’s surveillance state, and particularly the Stasi, whose reach into East German homes and families was legendary. I was captivated by the personal accounts of people whose lives were irrevocably changed by the Stasi – in some cases, they had no idea they were under such close surveillance until long after the Wall came down.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing?
I had one or two dark nights of the soul while writing this book where I considered chucking it all in and retraining as a museum nightwatchman or professional mermaid, but I’m glad I persisted.
Do you find it daunting to write historical fiction?
I do in the sense that I want so much to get it right. I always want to portray a time and place as accurately as possible. I’m something of a perfectionist, so when I find out that I got some historical grace note wrong, I beat myself up for days.
What’s next for you?
I ought to say a bit of a break is in order, but the second I finished this novel I got ideas for my next two, which I’m writing concurrently! One is historical, the other is my first contemporary – and it’s a rom com. It’s absolutely ridiculous, but then so am I.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
I’m halfway through David Nicholls’ You Are Here, which might go down as my favourite read of 2024 – it’s a funny and hopeful story about a pair of misfits who hike across the English countryside, and I just don’t want it to end – he’s a remarkable writer. I recently read Shara Moon’s Let Us March On, a lovely story about Lizzie McDuffie, a White House maid who became FDR’s unofficial secretary and civil rights advocate; and of course Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club is sitting on my bedside table. I can’t wait to dive in!
