The Judas Tree

LIVES FALL APART WHEN THE STASI ARCHIVES ARE OPENEDBerlin 1989. The Wall comes down, the regime collapses, the secret police files are opened. In communist East Germany, people spent their lives looking over their shoulders. Anyone could be an informant for the dreaded Stasi. Friends informed on friends, children on parents, husbands on wives. Everything they said went into the files.Matthias, a cellist, and Anne, a violinist, spent five years together in Leipzig. They played music, and stayed out of politics. Until Anne was killed in a car crash in France, they were happy. At least, that's what Matthias thought.But after Anne's death, he sees his file, and his illusions are shattered. He believed she loved him. That's not what the file says."Seeing your file can be a shock, Frulein Schroeder told me. Sometimes you have to go back into your soul and consider the whole of your life in a different light."Anne is no longer there to answer questions. Matthias must follow her trail back to Uzs to learn the truth.