Walled Off

Walled Off is a work of historical fiction about the Berlin Wall. It is the story of two young East Berliners desperately in love who are separated when a barbed–wire fence was driven into the streets and soul of Berlin, cleaving it in two for nearly thirty years. Sylvia Lenz dramatically escapes to the West on the night the Wall came down, leaving her beloved Tomas behind. He is shipped to a brutal Siberian gulag where the only thing keeping him sane is his love for Sylvia. He spends his days in isolation, writing in his mind the book that will someday set him free.

Walled Off is a story of love and loss. It portrays the horrors of life in Stasiland and of incarceration in the gulags. Days stretch into months and then years. Sylvia moves on with her life in West Berlin but never stops looking over her shoulder for Tomas. Tomas becomes a world–famous author but is still trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Yet just as the Wall appears impenetrable, cracks begin to appear and David Bowie famously turns and sings his song "Heroes," and the Wall comes crumbling down.

Sylvia and Tomas meet and attempt to rekindle the incredible love of their youth, but the tyranny and terror of the Berlin Wall has fundamentally changed both of them, particularly Tomas. Their love is severely tested during this dramatic historic era.

-- Gene Barton