The Banned Books of Berlin

Daisy Wood / Cultural History / Fiction

Book cover

UK Publisher

Avon

Date Published

April 10th, 2025

Another unforgettable story, tying together past and present, from the bestselling author of The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris and The Royal Librarian

Berlin, 1933. The night skies are burning bright with huge bonfires of banned books. The Nazi party is swelling in number and Berlin is no longer a safe place for young Freya.

She can only watch on, horrified, as her beloved city falls to fascism – and the usually law-abiding Freya is forced to make a choice: continue being a bystander, or sacrifice herself to save the lives of others…

New York, present day. Maddie commutes home to her family to reset. Struggling to fully turn off from her work, she is surprised to come across a pre-war German diary amongst her Grandpa’s things. And when she starts to dig into the diary, Maddie’s shocked by what she finds.

And so begins a journey that will take Maddie beyond America as she searches for the truth about Freya, and how she changed people’s lives across the globe…


Reviews

A ticking time-bomb of intrigue, wrapped around stark but rich descriptions of the Blitz. An unforgettable wartime debut.

- Mandy Robotham, internationally bestselling author

This book had me mesmerised from beginning to end. Highly recommended.

- NetGalley reviewer