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Berlin Atomized
For fans of Fernanda Melchor and Joshua Cohen; A knetic debut novel following three siblings—young, Jewish, and downwardly-mobile—from 2001 to 2034, as they each come of age and escape their affluent gated community in Buenos Aires, their stories spanning Europe and Israel, even Japan, as they search for one another again.Berlin Atomized begins in Buenos Aires of the early 2000s with the self-baptisms of Nina Goldstein. She bathes too frequently, washing with fervor and I am not asleep. She grows up amid the partying and undeserved siestas, the paper maché revolutions of youth, while her brother Jeremías is drawn into the city's powder keg music scene, and the eldest, Mateo, simply lights things on fire. Each sibling rehearses their escape from affluent Nordelta, the capitalist Eden of their birth, unaware that the gated community will soon be underwater, the family in pieces. From Punta del Este to Paris, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Brussels to Tokyo, the novel progresses into a dire near future of constant flight, fire, and the siblings’ search for one another.
220 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2021
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1130 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
March 1, 2022
"Esta sociedad premia a los imbéciles con buen marketing"
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April 13, 2025
A sparse story of upheaval, migration and turmoil that had me glued to the pages. Our narrator attempts to piece together the stories of the three Goldstein siblings. Originally born into a life of privilege and isolated from the political turmoil around them, they eventually become increasingly entangled with conflict and organized resistance.
Berlin Atomized doesn’t fill in the gaps - it leaves plenty unsaid, and doesn’t attempt to rationalize or fully understand its characters. Everything is framed as secondhand account from a narrator trying to rationalize and understand the enigmatic trio of siblings. What starts as a story of an idyllic, isolated life in Argentina quickly grows into a global, dystopian view of late-stage capitalism and political rebellion. It’s an interesting rumination of privilege and what it can (and cannot) protect us from.
Generally, I don’t think this has been particularly loved by many readers. I went in with low expectations but found myself unable to put this down. Thank you to Astra House Books for sending a copy my way!
Berlin Atomized doesn’t fill in the gaps - it leaves plenty unsaid, and doesn’t attempt to rationalize or fully understand its characters. Everything is framed as secondhand account from a narrator trying to rationalize and understand the enigmatic trio of siblings. What starts as a story of an idyllic, isolated life in Argentina quickly grows into a global, dystopian view of late-stage capitalism and political rebellion. It’s an interesting rumination of privilege and what it can (and cannot) protect us from.
Generally, I don’t think this has been particularly loved by many readers. I went in with low expectations but found myself unable to put this down. Thank you to Astra House Books for sending a copy my way!
December 1, 2024
I put this down, ready to DNF it, but then picked it back up again so many times that it gave me whiplash.
I don't know how to review it truthfully. There were entire passages where I felt sucked in, with really compelling writing and narrative, and then it would fracture abruptly into these barely digestible pages.
I finally finished, but even with the parts I enjoyed, I am not sure what happened. Maybe that was the point, considering the synopsis?
Ultimately, I wanted to like this more than I did. I crossed every finger I had that I would get sent an early copy, and I'm definitely grateful I was given the opportunity. It just wasn't for me!
I don't know how to review it truthfully. There were entire passages where I felt sucked in, with really compelling writing and narrative, and then it would fracture abruptly into these barely digestible pages.
I finally finished, but even with the parts I enjoyed, I am not sure what happened. Maybe that was the point, considering the synopsis?
Ultimately, I wanted to like this more than I did. I crossed every finger I had that I would get sent an early copy, and I'm definitely grateful I was given the opportunity. It just wasn't for me!
November 3, 2024
"𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧. 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯."
Are the kids alright?
Will they ever be alright?
Spanning across different countries and many years leading up to your thirties, we get the misery and unknown of your twentysomethings, along with all the wondering and wandering. You're left clueless after global tragedy and gobal reckoning from Charlie Hebdo to what is happening now in Gaza, wondering what the hell you're supposed to be doing.
Electric prose. Bombastic. It captures the fleeting essence of youth. But there isn't enough interiority to the characters to really flesh out a life to ride alongside, creating another shoulder-shrug narrative into the ether of lost twentysomethings without real say. Sometimes that's okay. Sometimes all we have is the heart of things and not so much any real rhyme or reason to figuring things out. Sometimes the heart is all that matters.
Are the kids alright?
Will they ever be alright?
Spanning across different countries and many years leading up to your thirties, we get the misery and unknown of your twentysomethings, along with all the wondering and wandering. You're left clueless after global tragedy and gobal reckoning from Charlie Hebdo to what is happening now in Gaza, wondering what the hell you're supposed to be doing.
Electric prose. Bombastic. It captures the fleeting essence of youth. But there isn't enough interiority to the characters to really flesh out a life to ride alongside, creating another shoulder-shrug narrative into the ether of lost twentysomethings without real say. Sometimes that's okay. Sometimes all we have is the heart of things and not so much any real rhyme or reason to figuring things out. Sometimes the heart is all that matters.
February 9, 2025
The first section of the novel, Berlin Atomized, is called, Rich Kids Want To Die, Too (2004-2018), which follows Nina Goldstein and her two brothers, Mateo and Jeremias, as they reach adolescence and early adulthood. Along with their peers they explore the music, photography, sex, drugs and how to survive the increasingly repressive authoritarian and failed capitalist system.
The story is told from the gathered, resurfaced words and documents detailing their life. The voice is Nina’s best friend, Angie, who later in Paris in the year 2027 becomes an active organizer of The New Resistance, “a cosmopolitan amalgamation of leftists: terrorists from Latin America, drug dealers and professional hackers, ecoterrorists, teenage nerds and autistic, Marxist men.”
While still in Buenos Aires Nina explores her own creative spirit, while Mateo, handsome and mad with depression, is madly loved by all the girls in high school. Jeremias, a musician, forms a band which Nina jumps in and out of as they all move on, eventually, away from Argentina where “we seemed always to be living through another national strike, more protests and marches admonishing internet posts, which pit us in a limbo of ennui and anger, both wanting to return to school and dreading its delayed start.”
At the public university Nina studies literature where her professor “was the type to read criticism instead of novels, and it showed in his inability to understand anything I said.”
In the second section, entitled, War Economy (2018-2034), the three Goldstein siblings all leave Argentina: Mateo to Israel to explore his Jewish roots but cannot escape his mental illness, while Nina, Jeremias end up in Europe: Berlin, Paris, Dortmund, Tokyo, and Gaza all make appearances in their assorted journeys.
Kornberg’s writing strikes many chords: cynical, ironic, satiric, funny, insightful, and critical, her voice and style, at times, reminded me of both Rachel Kushner’s in The Flamethrowers, and Jennifer Egan in The Candy House.
Nina initially finds work as a script writer for a producer who was an ex-child actor working in a writer’s laboratory where “there was an inevitable quantity of drugs meant to help us create hardly stimulating work.”
While still in BsAs, she starts a long-term relationship with an older married painter, Ossip, eventually they live together in Berlin, but the relationship is doomed, Ossip’s art “in reality is just another kind of entertainment, like watching a Champions League game or going to the theater, or even the movies, or using your phone.”
In 2027, Europe explodes, literally a series of explosions and violence lays waste to the EU. This prophetic scenario, in the hands of Kornberg, seems quite feasible as the story turns to describing the volatile period and how it impacts daily life.
“At home, we left our windows wide open, to show that we had nothing to hide. We were surveilled [by the State] anyway…being watched by our phones, computers, television – the neighbors watched us fuck, and I imagine it was more exciting than watching porn – though we, too, were merely performing. They also watched us drinking mate, all those banal domestic moments of shared life that were even more intimate than sex.”
Nina becomes a renowned photographer documenting the drearier sides of life hooking up with her old friend Angelica and The New Resistance to help change the course of history; Angie, a major organizer, “seemed captivated by hypomania and the intensity of her vocation.” Nina deciding, “I needed to do something more than entertain artists in living rooms in Berlin, but I think the real motivation was our shared unease about the future, our slightly desperate urge to be together again” as they were when rebellious teenagers back in Buenos Aires.
As time passes Nina, still with Ossip, leaves Berlin for the smaller confines of Dortmund where “she no longer had the same youthful impulsiveness she’d had in Buenos Aires, nor experienced fits of creativity." Depressed, her deceased brother Mateo, the inter-Euro wars, attending a Holocaust Remembrance event, she ends up spending most days in front of the TV watching mindless sad medical dramas. Still her photos of degradation set in seedy bars, detention camps, are exhibited to rave reviews.
Julia Kornberg, in this first novel, Berlin Atomized, is introduced as an exciting new writer. Her voice is sharp, complex, light and heavy, all at the same time. This is an important and entertaining short novel, a page turner filled with interesting characters and premonitions of the economic and political future that awaits us all.
The story is told from the gathered, resurfaced words and documents detailing their life. The voice is Nina’s best friend, Angie, who later in Paris in the year 2027 becomes an active organizer of The New Resistance, “a cosmopolitan amalgamation of leftists: terrorists from Latin America, drug dealers and professional hackers, ecoterrorists, teenage nerds and autistic, Marxist men.”
While still in Buenos Aires Nina explores her own creative spirit, while Mateo, handsome and mad with depression, is madly loved by all the girls in high school. Jeremias, a musician, forms a band which Nina jumps in and out of as they all move on, eventually, away from Argentina where “we seemed always to be living through another national strike, more protests and marches admonishing internet posts, which pit us in a limbo of ennui and anger, both wanting to return to school and dreading its delayed start.”
At the public university Nina studies literature where her professor “was the type to read criticism instead of novels, and it showed in his inability to understand anything I said.”
In the second section, entitled, War Economy (2018-2034), the three Goldstein siblings all leave Argentina: Mateo to Israel to explore his Jewish roots but cannot escape his mental illness, while Nina, Jeremias end up in Europe: Berlin, Paris, Dortmund, Tokyo, and Gaza all make appearances in their assorted journeys.
Kornberg’s writing strikes many chords: cynical, ironic, satiric, funny, insightful, and critical, her voice and style, at times, reminded me of both Rachel Kushner’s in The Flamethrowers, and Jennifer Egan in The Candy House.
Nina initially finds work as a script writer for a producer who was an ex-child actor working in a writer’s laboratory where “there was an inevitable quantity of drugs meant to help us create hardly stimulating work.”
While still in BsAs, she starts a long-term relationship with an older married painter, Ossip, eventually they live together in Berlin, but the relationship is doomed, Ossip’s art “in reality is just another kind of entertainment, like watching a Champions League game or going to the theater, or even the movies, or using your phone.”
In 2027, Europe explodes, literally a series of explosions and violence lays waste to the EU. This prophetic scenario, in the hands of Kornberg, seems quite feasible as the story turns to describing the volatile period and how it impacts daily life.
“At home, we left our windows wide open, to show that we had nothing to hide. We were surveilled [by the State] anyway…being watched by our phones, computers, television – the neighbors watched us fuck, and I imagine it was more exciting than watching porn – though we, too, were merely performing. They also watched us drinking mate, all those banal domestic moments of shared life that were even more intimate than sex.”
Nina becomes a renowned photographer documenting the drearier sides of life hooking up with her old friend Angelica and The New Resistance to help change the course of history; Angie, a major organizer, “seemed captivated by hypomania and the intensity of her vocation.” Nina deciding, “I needed to do something more than entertain artists in living rooms in Berlin, but I think the real motivation was our shared unease about the future, our slightly desperate urge to be together again” as they were when rebellious teenagers back in Buenos Aires.
As time passes Nina, still with Ossip, leaves Berlin for the smaller confines of Dortmund where “she no longer had the same youthful impulsiveness she’d had in Buenos Aires, nor experienced fits of creativity." Depressed, her deceased brother Mateo, the inter-Euro wars, attending a Holocaust Remembrance event, she ends up spending most days in front of the TV watching mindless sad medical dramas. Still her photos of degradation set in seedy bars, detention camps, are exhibited to rave reviews.
Julia Kornberg, in this first novel, Berlin Atomized, is introduced as an exciting new writer. Her voice is sharp, complex, light and heavy, all at the same time. This is an important and entertaining short novel, a page turner filled with interesting characters and premonitions of the economic and political future that awaits us all.
November 16, 2024
A genre bender that encapsulates the transformative years of youth, political mania, and apocalyptic collapse! where Paris is burning, Berlin is falling, and the world is on the brink of falling apart… once again?! is there a cycle to the turmoil? would we all be better if censorship ceased to exist and net neutrality gave way to the ‘darkest iterations of the human soul’… the blood and guts on full display?
there’s a lot to discuss within this short novel and felt that I was on hyperspeed throughout the character building and inner ebb and flow of our main character, Nina. This is by no means a perfect novel but with the writing being exquisite, an experimental approach being made successfully and its’ overarching, expansive themes.. thinking it’s 5 star worthy!!
Huge thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for the arc!!!
there’s a lot to discuss within this short novel and felt that I was on hyperspeed throughout the character building and inner ebb and flow of our main character, Nina. This is by no means a perfect novel but with the writing being exquisite, an experimental approach being made successfully and its’ overarching, expansive themes.. thinking it’s 5 star worthy!!
Huge thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for the arc!!!
January 24, 2025
massively clever, deep cool
felt like tiny piercings of the heart
but with a very very thin knife
and an overextended hand
felt like tiny piercings of the heart
but with a very very thin knife
and an overextended hand
November 1, 2024
Presented as a collection of journal-like recollections from siblings Nina and Jeremías Goldstein that are eventually cobbled together in the year 2063 by their childhood friend, Berlin Atomized is the story of a society, of a family, of a world gone to hell. Blending genres, the book follows the life of Nina, Jeremías, and their brother Mateo from their coming of age in the affluent Bueno Aires suburb of Nordelta to their treks across a speculative future Europe—though the author refers to it as a “hyperbolic reading of the present”—where guerrilla terrorists have blown up all monuments and buildings that symbolize the wealth and greed of history’s power-hungry rulers.
Kornberg’s depiction of this cynical generation is astute: they’re privileged, they’re artists, they seek authenticity, they’re online, they’re trying to escape themselves and their misery, and they want a revolution.
It’s about the disintegration, the atomization of society, of family, of collective aspirations, of the future we thought would be there but has since become a pipe dream.
An impressive debut from this young writer who also co-translated the novel. The writing is sharp, filled with so many sentences I wanted to underline for both their humor and precision. I’ll be eagerly waiting to see what Kornberg comes out with next, she’s a writer with her finger on the pulse.
Kornberg’s depiction of this cynical generation is astute: they’re privileged, they’re artists, they seek authenticity, they’re online, they’re trying to escape themselves and their misery, and they want a revolution.
It’s about the disintegration, the atomization of society, of family, of collective aspirations, of the future we thought would be there but has since become a pipe dream.
An impressive debut from this young writer who also co-translated the novel. The writing is sharp, filled with so many sentences I wanted to underline for both their humor and precision. I’ll be eagerly waiting to see what Kornberg comes out with next, she’s a writer with her finger on the pulse.
February 8, 2025
Berlin Atomized is magnetic—passages of sharp, electric prose pull you in completely, capturing the fleeting essence of youth. Kornberg’s writing is bold and exhilarating, filled with moments that feel almost hypnotic. But just as quickly, the novel fractures, shifting into fragmented, sometimes impenetrable sections that disrupt the momentum and leave me grasping for coherence.
The book embraces an experimental structure, and while it succeeds in creating an expansive, ambitious narrative, it often lacks the depth of character needed to make these lives feel fully lived-in. The protagonists drift, lost in their twenties, without enough interiority to truly anchor me in their experiences. This makes the journey feel more like an abstract meditation than an intimate portrait.
And yet, maybe that’s the point. Sometimes life doesn’t offer easy resolutions—sometimes all we have is the feeling of it, the raw, unfiltered heart of things. While Berlin Atomized isn’t perfect, its stylistic risks pay off in moments of brilliance, delivering a novel that is at times confounding yet undeniably poignant.
The book embraces an experimental structure, and while it succeeds in creating an expansive, ambitious narrative, it often lacks the depth of character needed to make these lives feel fully lived-in. The protagonists drift, lost in their twenties, without enough interiority to truly anchor me in their experiences. This makes the journey feel more like an abstract meditation than an intimate portrait.
And yet, maybe that’s the point. Sometimes life doesn’t offer easy resolutions—sometimes all we have is the feeling of it, the raw, unfiltered heart of things. While Berlin Atomized isn’t perfect, its stylistic risks pay off in moments of brilliance, delivering a novel that is at times confounding yet undeniably poignant.
June 26, 2022
Todxs lxs personajes parecen sacadxs de twitter woke y eso me dio mucha risa. La voz narrativa es confusa en muchas ocasiones, pero una vez que terminas todo hace sentido. Creo que es un muy buen reflejo de un prototipo de persona anti neoliberal artística, pero la construcción de los personajes no creo que sea lo suficientemente rica pa dejar ver su individualidad. Y qué raro que ese mundo distópico se parezca tanto al nuestro
March 14, 2025
Meandering, vague….. I was like what’s wrong with this book??? Turns out the author was like 23 or something when it published. And it shows!!! I was compelled for some reason to finish it but it was a big waste of time
August 25, 2025
Points deducted for being weirdly Zionist. Also too pro-French, and I’m a francophobe. Written like someone in their early twenties who thinks it’s edgy and gritty to do heroin (no one uses heroin anymore, Mary Beth) and write in your journal about being a communist. It’s 2025, get a fucking job
May 22, 2025
Short, very good descriptions on life in pre-inflation Argentina. If you like Claire Keegan’s books, this is very similar.
September 1, 2024
Thank you to Netgalley and Astra Publishing for an arc in exchange for an honest review!
While I found myself interested in the journeys or the Goldstein siblings, I felt like this was rushed and I didn't have nearly enough time to cement myself in any of their stories. This book takes us through 33 years of life and attempts to do it in about 250 pages. Personally, I didn't get enough background info or time to really get to know the characters and found myself confused at several point as to who was narrating and where we were in the story. I maybe would've liked this better if there was a bit more filler information or perhaps formatted differently, but as is I left feeling underwhelmed.
While I found myself interested in the journeys or the Goldstein siblings, I felt like this was rushed and I didn't have nearly enough time to cement myself in any of their stories. This book takes us through 33 years of life and attempts to do it in about 250 pages. Personally, I didn't get enough background info or time to really get to know the characters and found myself confused at several point as to who was narrating and where we were in the story. I maybe would've liked this better if there was a bit more filler information or perhaps formatted differently, but as is I left feeling underwhelmed.
February 13, 2025
Gorgeous prose; but a few too many rogue references that maybe I’d understand if I was a grunge punk artist? Not too much character development, but I was able to trace a thin line between them, and the depth of their relationships came through, I enjoyed how important Angelica became as time went on. If it was any longer, would have been mad, but 3.5 stars!
April 27, 2025
Witty writing and an experimental organization that worked surprisingly well. Some of it went over my head and that could be because of A. it being a translation B. it being a heady piece of writing C. i'm a little dumb.
Want to read
December 3, 2024translated by katie’s bf ✨✨✨
November 29, 2025
hoy es cumpleaños de gris!!!! feliz cumpleaños gris.
llevaba rato buscando este libro en español y hasta ahora no lo encuentro. me gustaría que fuera más más más largo, fue una despedida temprana.
llevaba rato buscando este libro en español y hasta ahora no lo encuentro. me gustaría que fuera más más más largo, fue una despedida temprana.
November 23, 2025
it’s not that it was bad, it just wasn’t good
January 25, 2025
Me hizo sentir nostalgia de cosas que no he vivido.
December 3, 2024
Thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for this ARC! and happy pub day:) This book was like a fever dream! I liked the format, how it felt like a series of snapshots through time in this family's life. I struggled with the vocab, and I feel like I have a decent vocabulary! I don't love having to look up words the whole book but that's a me problem. I also didn't always know what was a reference to fictionalized events/people and what was a real pop culture reference, also a me problem! Overall just some barriers to me enjoying this book to the fullest.
June 26, 2025
Mesmerizing, but uneven. Also kind of aesthetically decadent, so particularly surprising for a dystopian novel. Some of the chapters, like the one set in Gaza, are exceptional and could be standalone but taken as a whole the novel is not entirely cohesive. That said, Kornberg has style and she has captured the feeling of alienation, that feeling of being on a pendulum that swings from listless to terrified, in a way I resonated with to a scary degree.
December 10, 2025
a short, sharp rumination on privilege, upheaval, and collapse. enjoyed following the goldstein siblings throughout their lives and from their cloistered childhood to their tumultuous adulthood in an imagined but not entirely unrealistic future. found julia kornberg's prose to be smart, sharp, and precise. found the head-jumping from narrator to narrator occasionally confusing but it didn't prevent me from liking this book a lot overall. also not really related but i def want to pick up more books from argentine authors bc my dad's family was from there and he lived there for a while
January 9, 2026
Unique and often disheartening given the rise of fascism in our current world. This book starts in a sheltered enclave in Argentina before fleeing across the water to Europe. It charts an esoteric fall of Europe and the modern world through 3 siblings and their search for meaning and each other. This books fills in very few gaps as it jumps through time and from city to city but trust where it leads and you will find yourself in a remarkable little novel.
December 29, 2025
This book was pretty good. Very beautiful prose and the scenes and vibes were set well. The overall plot was cool. Definitely a very short book. I thought it was kinda pretentious sometimes, and I feel like it was trying to be political but wasn’t very coherent. Still though, I’m happy I read this book.
Read
January 20, 2025I like the way this is written so much but it was so difficult to make myself keep reading. Much skimming occurred but so did much exclaiming over genius
Read
August 7, 2025Cannot stop thinking about this quote “History repeats itself. First as a tragedy then as a tragedy and then as a tragedy then again”
August 20, 2025
I did not like this. While speculating about the collapse of Europe, Kornberg shies away from providing context or political commentary to give the story any sort of meaning. Sure, it’s like the end of history, or whatever. Messed up and schizophrenic but still boring.
March 30, 2025
Confounding read ! More thoughts when I wake up
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