
Forty Autumns
A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
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By:
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Nina Willner
About this listen
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 family - of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than 40 years and 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 20, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom - leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home - was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own.
Growing up near Washington, DC, Hanna's daughter, Nina 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 relatives - grandmother Oma; aunt Heidi; and cousin Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team - a bitter political war kept them apart.
In Forty Autumns, Nina recounts her family's story - five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer running 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 nation and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love - of five women whose spirits could not be broken and who fought to preserve what matters most: family.
©2016 Nina Willner (P)2016 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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- The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya
- By: William Carlsen
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1839 rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the world's most intrepid travelers. Seized by the reports, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood sailed together out of New York Harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rainforests of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. What they found would rewrite the West's understanding of human history.
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Lacking on adventure, misleading title
- By Allen on 02-23-17
By: William Carlsen
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The Sugar Jar
- Create Boundaries, Embrace Self-Healing, and Enjoy the Sweet Things in Life
- By: Yasmine Cheyenne
- Narrated by: Yasmine Cheyenne
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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The Sugar Jar metaphor is a powerful teaching tool that wellness advocate and coach Yasmine Cheyenne has successfully used with her clients. Now, in her debut book, she makes it available to everyone. Combining stories, exercises, and prompts, The Sugar Jar lets you see just how much energy you have and how much is being used by others. It helps you identify what depletes you, what restores you, and how to recognize destructive patterns. It empowers you to free yourself from performing for and serving others, teaching you to set boundaries to help you heal and recharge.
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Give Yourself Grace
- By ToNora on 01-05-25
By: Yasmine Cheyenne
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Do Not Disturb
- The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad
- By: Michela Wrong
- Narrated by: Michela Wrong
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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We think we know the story of Africa’s Great Lakes region. Following the Rwandan genocide, an idealistic group of young rebels overthrew the brutal regime in Kigali, ushering in an era of peace and stability that made Rwanda the donor darling of the West, winning comparisons with Switzerland and Singapore. But the truth was considerably more sinister.
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What is true and what isn't?
- By Buretto on 11-30-21
By: Michela Wrong
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The Force
- The Legendary Special Ops Unit and WWII's Mission Impossible
- By: Saul David
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In December of 1943, as Nazi forces sprawled around the world and the future of civilization hung in the balance, a group of highly trained US and Canadian soldiers from humble backgrounds was asked to do the impossible: capture a crucial Nazi stronghold perched atop stunningly steep cliffs. The men were a rough-and-ready group, assembled from towns nested in North America's most unforgiving terrain, where many of them had struggled through the Great Depression relying on canny survival skills and the fearlessness of youth.
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Great story, not so great narrating
- By Lance Demeter on 10-03-20
By: Saul David
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The Trouble with White Women
- A Counterhistory of Feminism
- By: Kyla Schuller, Brittney Cooper - foreword
- Narrated by: Christine Lakin, Mela Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Women including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Sanger, and Sheryl Sandberg are commonly celebrated as leaders of feminism. Yet they have fought for the few, not the many. As award-winning scholar Kyla Schuller argues, their White feminist politics dispossess the most marginalized to liberate themselves. In The Trouble with White Women, Schuller brings to life the 200-year counter-history of Black, Indigenous, Latina, poor, queer, and trans women pushing back against White feminists and uniting to dismantle systemic injustice.
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Excellent read!
- By A. Robertson on 11-30-21
By: Kyla Schuller, and others
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The Idea of the Brain
- The Past and Future of Neuroscience
- By: Matthew Cobb
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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An "elegant", "engrossing" (Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal) examination of what we think we know about the brain and why - despite technological advances - the workings of our most essential organ remain a mystery.
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Informative and interesting but mispronunciation
- By Stephanie Romer on 05-16-22
By: Matthew Cobb
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Death in the Air
- The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City
- By: Kate Winkler Dawson
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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A real-life thriller in the vein of The Devil in the White City, Kate Winkler Dawson's debut, Death in the Air, is a gripping, historical narrative of a serial killer, an environmental disaster, and an iconic city struggling to regain its footing. In winter 1952, London automobiles and thousands of coal-burning hearths belched particulate matter into the air. But the smog that descended on December fifth of 1952 was different; it was a type that held the city hostage for five long days.
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Interesting
- By irene on 11-27-17
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All I Ever Wanted
- A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir
- By: Kathy Valentine
- Narrated by: Kathy Valentine
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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At 21, Kathy Valentine was at the Whisky in Los Angeles when she met a guitarist from a fledgling band called the Go-Go's - and the band needed a bassist. The Go-Go's became the first multi-platinum-selling, all-female band to play instruments themselves, write their own songs, and have a number one album. But for Valentine, the band's success was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream - but it's only part of her story. All I Ever Wanted traces the path that took her from her childhood in Texas - where she all but raised herself - to the height of rock n' roll stardom.
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A rock n roll memoir like no other!
- By Pen Name on 06-16-20
By: Kathy Valentine
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Operation Vengeance
- The Astonishing Aerial Ambush That Changed World War II
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1943, the United States military began to plan one of the most dramatic secret missions of World War II. Its code name was Operation Vengeance. Naval Intelligence had intercepted the itinerary of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, whose stealth attack on Pearl Harbor precipitated America’s entry into the war. Harvard-educated, Yamamoto was a close confidant of Emperor Hirohito and a brilliant tactician who epitomized Japanese military might.
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I want 1/2 my money back
- By DPM on 08-11-20
By: Dan Hampton
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The Siren
- By: Katherine St. John
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett, Christine Lakin, Kamali Minter, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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From Katherine St. John, author of The Lion's Den, comes another sublimely escapist thriller: When Hollywood heartthrob Cole Power hires his ex-wife, Stella Rivers, to act in his son's film, he sparks a firestorm on an isolated island that will unearth long-buried secrets - and unravel years of lies.
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Truth be told … Regardless
- By Nan on 11-17-21
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Born to Shine
- Do Good, Find Your Joy, and Build a Life You Love
- By: Kendra Scott
- Narrated by: Kendra Scott
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Perfection isn’t just a lie, it’s exhausting, and Kendra is tired of it. In this vulnerable, wise, and laugh-out-loud book, Kendra takes us on a journey of personal stories and hard-earned life lessons, from her humble beginnings as an awkward, bullied young girl in small-town Wisconsin to launching a business in her spare bedroom with $500. With every pitfall, misstep, and failure, Kendra builds a life—and a career—rooted in joy, purpose, and doing good, a life she wants for every listener.
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I wanted to like this so much
- By BKP House on 10-05-22
By: Kendra Scott
Since then, I've been interested in eastern Europe.
This book describes both the personal and political backdrop to what happened in East Germany, what the reality of life was like, the risk it was to leave...
This book is accessible, readable, and compelling. But there's something disconcerting about the author referring to her grandmother, someone she never met, as her "Oma", and her mother by her first name. And there's something disjointed in the telling in places, where family member disappear and reappear and you almost need a scorecard to keep up with who they are.
Cassandra Campbell is a wonderful narrator, though I'm not certain about her German and Russian pronunciations. Overall, both author and narrator did a wonderful job of telling the reality of life under east German rule.
Well worth your time and credit.
Terrific Book!
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You could tell that the author had a great deal of knowledge with the topic and had me looking forward to my afternoon walk with my dog so I could get back into the story.
Wonderful Audible BOOK
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Couldn’t stop listening
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Narrator was good but German pronunciation quite lacking.
A Cold War family story worth hearing
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Insightful
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Comprehensive and personal
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As a retired United States, Air Force pilot, who was able to fly missions into Germany, and also into Berlin when the wall was still active, I found this book, extremely informative and interesting. Her description of flying into Berlin through those corridors was exactly as I remembered back in the 70s .
Outstanding piece of work
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Post WW2 Story I had never heard!
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Insightful, interesting, and well-researched
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Great story and perspective
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