Drew is an army brat, a hotshot athlete poised to be his high schools star pitcher, when he has to move for the sixth time in fifteen yearsthis time to West Berlin, where American soldiers like his dad hold an outpost of democracy against communist Russia in Hitlers former capital. Meanwhile, in East Berlin, his cousin Matthias has grown up in the wreckage left by Allied bombing during World War II, on streets ruled by the Communist Partys secret police. From the opposing sides of the Cold War, Drew and Matthias begin to overcome the many ideological walls between them to become wary friends. They argue over the space race, capitalism, socialism, and even the American civil rights movement, and bond over rock n rollmusic outlawed in Matthiass part of the city. If Matthias is caught by the Stasis neighborhood spies with the records or books Drew has given him, he will be sent to a work camp for re-education. At the same time, Drews friendship with the East Berlin Jugendwho ardently spout communist dogmaraises suspicions about his familys loyalty to America. As the political situation around them gets all the more dire, Drew and Matthiass loyaltyto their sector, their countries, their families, and each otherwill be tested in ways that will change their lives forever. Set in the tumultuous year leading up to the surprise overnight raising of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, and punctuated with real-life photographs, headlines, and personalities of the time, Walls brings to vivid life the heroic and tragic choices of the Cold War.
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Walls | 
