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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Katrin Costa’s The Girl in the Purple Jacket is an inspired true historical story set in East Germany in 1989, where twenty-year-old Karlina lives under a government that decides where its citizens may travel and how openly they may speak. Karlina has spent years imagining life beyond the Iron Curtain, watching West German television and listening for signs that political change might reach her village. When her cousin Ella visits from West Germany wearing a purple jacket that seems to represent everything Karlina longs for, the visit leaves Karlina thinking about the future she wants. Her boyfriend Stefan offers a route out, yet leaving the German Democratic Republic means crossing borders being watched by armed guards. As unrest spreads across Eastern Europe, Karlina must decide whether she will remain in the life chosen for her or risk everything for another.
Katrin Costa’s The Girl in the Purple Jacket is outstanding historical fiction, and Karlina is written with real maturity as she reaches for a life beyond the one laid out for her. Her curiosity gives her warmth, and her hunger for independence brings conviction to every possibility opening before her. The period detail is superb, placing her inside a Germany undergoing enormous social change and giving that world a lived-in quality. The prose is especially good at establishing place, proven by the Stuttgart mansion where a crystal chandelier hangs above a sweeping staircase. The single most terrifying image to me is the East German border near Mellrichstadt, where broken windows overlook watchtowers and concrete, forming part of the “death strip” patrolled by armed soldiers. Those settings widen the life Karlina is fighting to claim and strengthen the sense of escape running through her journey. Readers who have loved the likes of Robotham's The Girl Behind the Wall and Sullivan's The Last Green Valley are in for a real treat. Very highly recommended.
