Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall

In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer tells the true story of her family—five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The book explores the pain and longing of a family living apart in a divided world. Hanna escaped from East to West Germany at twenty, leaving behind her family, and later moved to America. Her daughter, Nina Willner, became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead operations in East Berlin during the Cold War. Despite being only miles apart, their lives were kept separate by political conflict. Nina recounts her family’s story of resilience and love amid the tumultuous history of East Germany and her own experiences behind the Berlin Wall.