A Berlin Love Song

Written by Sarah Matthias

Publication date: April 2017
Ages: Young adult
Format: Paperback / 198 x 130 mm / 432 pages
ISBN: 978-1-909991-408
Rights available: World (sold: Bulgarian, Czech, Serbian)
UK retail price: £7.99

“Max Hartmann. Just a Berlin boy of seventeen who loved me in that long autumn of 1942, when war raged all over Europe. And I loved him back desperately, since our love was forbidden. For he was the son of a rich professor of medicine. And I was Zigeunergeschmeiss. Gypsy scum.”

Teenager Lili Petalo is a Roma girl, a trapeze artist in her family’s circus; Max Hartmann is a member of the Hitler Youth and is about to be recruited into the German army. When they meet and fall in love, for a short while the world seems to offer them freedom and hope - before events tear them apart.

Up to half a million Roma died in Nazi concentration camps. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, Sarah Matthias’s new novel is both a celebration of the Roma way of life, and the powerful, moving story of two individuals caught up in history. It shines a light, too, on Hitler’s persecution of the Roma people - what Angela Merkel has called ‘the forgotten Holocaust’.
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Set against the backdrop of the Second World War, A Berlin Love Song is a heart-wrenching, unputdownable story of first love, passion, unexpected friendship, despair, loss and hope.

Awards and selections

Winner of the Shropshire Teenage Book Award 2018.

Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2018.

Reviews

“Eloquent, vivid, generous, robust, rich, rewarding, potent, compelling and deeply moving, A Berlin Love Song ... is full of colour and intensity, gentleness and delight, and not a little heartbreak.”

Zoe Toft, Playing by the book

”I do like a novel that as well as being a good story teaches me something. A great achievement.”

Pippa Goodhart, Awfully Big Reviews

”I loved everything about this book, from the freshness of the writing, to the harsh intensity of a romance ensnared in the dark events of the Romani Holocaust. One for every library and older-teenage bookshelf.”

Historical Novel Society

”Emotionally charged and powerful ... A truly excellent story for teens and adults alike. I have absolutely no doubt that whoever reads this book will not be able to put it down.”

Elizabeth Baskeyfield, The School Librarian

”I was captivated and finished the book in just three sittings and enjoyed the way the Romani language was incorporated throughout the book and felt so compelled to keep turning the pages. A tale of horror, hope and heartache.”

Isabelle Smith, The Travellers' Times

”A Berlin Love Song is well-paced and the juxtaposition of the romance alongside the complexities of war keep the reader captivated throughout. Whilst desperately sad in places, the story holds the joy of love and the strength found in family at its heart. A very appropriate metaphor for our time.”

Victoria Dilly, thebookactivist

Resources & extras

Read more about Sarah's inspiration for A Berlin Love Story in her interview with BookTrust, and more about her writing methods in her interview with Zoe Toft.