Forty Autumns

In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir,a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her familyΓÇöof five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty yearsand their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twentyHanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedomΓÇöleaving behind her parentseight siblingsand family homeΓÇöwas heartbreaking. UprootedHanna eventually moved to Americawhere she settled down with her husband and had children of her own. Growing up near WashingtonD.C.HannaΓÇÖs daughterNina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relativesΓÇögrandmother OmaAunt Heidiand cousinCordulaa member of the East German Olympic training teamΓÇöa bitter political war kept them apart. In Forty AutumnsNina recounts her familyΓÇÖs storyΓÇöfive ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rulerevealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officerrunning secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk. A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nationand continues to haunt usForty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courageresilienceand loveΓÇöof five women whose spirits could not be brokenand who fought to preserve what matters most: family. Forty Autumns is illustrated with dozens of black-and-white and color photographs.