"A devastating book. It is matter-of-fact, makes no attempt to score political points, does not attempt to solicit sympathy for its protagonist, and yet is among the most chilling indictments of war I have ever read. Everybody, in particular every woman, ought to read it."--Arundhati Roy, Booker Prize-winning author of The God of Small Things
"A tract essential for our often morally fuzzy times . . . It is destined to be a classic."--San Francisco Chronicle
"Let Anonymous stand witness as she wished to: as an undistorted voice for all women in war and its aftermath, whatever their names or nation or ethnicity. Anywhere."--Los Angeles Times
"An astonishing record of survival . . . the voice of Anonymous emerges as both shrewd and funny . . . a fresh contribution to the literature of war."--Entertainment Weekly (grade: A)
"A richly detailed, clear-eyed account of the effects of war and enemy occupation on a civilian population . . . She has written, in short, a work of literature, rich in character and perception."--Joseph Kanon, The New York Times Book Review
"Her journal earns a particular place in the archives of recollection. This is because it neither condemns nor forgives: not her countrymen, not her occupiers, and not, remarkably, herself. . . . Stands gritty and obdurate among a swirl of revisionist currents that variously have asserted and disputed the inherent nature of Germans' national guilt . . .To put it briefly, Anonymous writes a merciless account of what individuals can be faced with when all material and social props collapse."--The Boston Globe
"A riveting account of a military atrocity . . . The author doesn't try to explain or moralize the horror. She simply records it as perhaps no one else has, in all of its devastating essence."--The New York Observer
"Unflinchingly honest . . . Its frank documentation of German suffering—the hunger and uncertainty as well as the widespread rape—illuminates a subject whose worldwide taboo is just beginning to subside."--The Village Voice
"A brilliant and powerful work."--Newsday
"What makes the book an essential document is its frank and unself-conscious record of the physical and moral devastation that accompanied the war. . . . The diarist's emotional register remains unfailingly calm. Her dispassionate chronicle of the disasters of war suggests a kind of stoic heroism. . . . Remarkable."--Salon.com
"A stunning account of a German woman's battle to survive repeated rape at the hands of the victors among the ruins of Berlin . . . While leaders plot their dreams of glory and victory, the lives of ordinary people—on all sides—are trampled and destroyed. A most salutary work."--David Hare, The Guardian (U.K.)
"The author has a fierce, uncompromising voice, and her book should become a classic of war literature."--Publishers Weekly
"Books can transform us. So very few do. A Woman in Berlin is one that can."--Dayton Daily News
"A work of great power . . . The author is a keen observer of the ironies, even the absurdities, of a collapsing society. . . . A devastating and rare glimpse at ordinary people who struggle to survive."--Booklist
"With the passage of time, Anonymous's perspective—and the extraordinary way she kept her dignity and moral sense alive in an inferno—have made her diary a war classic."--Maclean's (Toronto)
"Marvelous . . . As it is a human instinct to survive, this book, which could have been horrifying, is instead exhilarating: a rare tribute to the human spirit."--Daily Mail (U.K.)
"Coolly written, tearingly honest . . . This is a classic not only of war literature but also of writing at the very extreme of human suffering."--The Daily Telegraph (London)
