Roads to Berlin maps the changing landscape of Germany, from the period before the fall of the Wall to the present. Written and updated over the course of several decades, an eyewitness account of the pivotal events of 1989 gives way to a perceptive appreciation of its difficult passage to reunification. Nooteboom's writings on politics, people, architecture and culture are as digressive as they are eloquent; his innate curiosity takes him through the landscapes of Heine and Goethe, steeped in Romanticism and mythology, and to Germany's baroque cities. With an outsider's objectivity he has crafted an intimate portrait of the country to its present day.

"'He writes in a voice that blends the acuity of Martha Gellhorn with the meditative grace of W.G. Sebald' Economist." - Economist

"'As Jan Morris is to Venice or Trieste, as Edmund White to Paris and Claudio Magris to the Danube, so is Cees Nooteboom to Berlin' Rebecca K. Morrison, Independent." - Independent

"'An exciting account of those turbulent far-off events' Ian Thomson, Sunday Telegraph." - Sunday Telegraph

"'An exciting account of those turbulent far-off events' Ian Thomson, Sunday Telegraph." - Sunday Telegraph