This Must Be the Place

by Anna Winger

A charming and undeniably powerful debut novel set in Berlin about the friendship between a fading actor and a young married American woman who are both learning to live with the past.

Walter Baum has one of the most famous voices in Germany, if no longer a famous face. A former television star, he’s been dubbing Tom Cruise’s lines into German for fifteen years, since he returned from a failed attempt to make it as an actor in Hollywood. Now he finds himself nearing forty, alone and adrift.

In the apartment just below him, a young American woman named Hope is slipping further and further into herself. Having fled New York a month earlier to join her workaholic husband in Berlin, she finds herself more isolated than ever and unable to cope with the sense of foreboding created by the haunted city around her and the painful memories from the one she just left.

These two broken people form an unlikely friendship, at first out of loneliness, but then deepening out of genuine affinity. They are finally forced to reveal their secrets and examine their pasts, and, as a pair, they explore how to reconcile their hopes for the future with the ache of history that lingers, permanently, beneath the surface.

Funny, insightful, and moving, This Must Be the Place is an expertly crafted debut novel about the events that bind us together and the friendships that make and remake us whole.

Genres: Fiction, Germany, Book Club

320 pages, Hardcover

First published August 14, 2008

Reviews

[Wheeler · Rating 1 out of 5]

This Must Be the Place is a well-written exercise in nothing-happens fiction.
Some may argue for the virtues of nothing-happens fiction (Ulysses) or point to other great novels by literary greats where nothing actually happens.

Kudos to those people because they are ignoring the flip-side of do-nothing fiction: the multitude of books published that are, at their core and outer edges and everywhere in between, boring. Boring, boring, boring.

Winger’s entry into the genre takes place in a reunified Berlin, where she is living, partially alone, partially with her husband. He’s an American, but I, and likely you, wouldn’t have figured that out until halfway through. (I thought he was a German, with the italicized dialogue, and all.)
As other negative reviewers have noted, there’s this thing going on between Winger and her neighbor and it never consummates.
Boring, boring, boring.

About halfway through, I jumped on Goodreads and went for the negative reviews. (I always look at negative reviews; positive reviews rarely have anything of any value. Rah rah! has no value.)
Sure enough, they told me, nothing happens. I then started skimming.
Being a former ex-pat myself, I had little sympathy for the main character. She barely goes to German class, complains that all her classmates hate her because she’s both an American and a woman. Yet, she never tries to get into a different class in the same school or go to a different language school. (Berlin is a big town. I cannot fathom them having only one Volkshochschule for the cheaper people and Goethe Institutes for the wealthy.)

Also, the only former East German character is really a dick, a foil to the West German counterpart. He’s all America-hating and the main character never stands up to him. Having lived with former East Germans, they might be cold, and I had the same experience when it came to other people hating American foreign policy, but I never once experienced the kind of ridiculous behavior Winger has her character encounter.

I did not suspend by disbelief.

Another thing that I did not suspend my disbelief for: the neighbor, whom in a normal novel the main character would have had an affair with, is 39. I only found this out on page 107. All other readings lend to a man in his mid-50s at the earliest.

As a former ex-pat who lived in the post-reunification former East Germany, I get a lot of the references Winger makes in her book. Cilantro? Germans hate it. (She doesn’t mention the non-existence of jalapenos, or any peppers.)

“’I’ll make you salsa if I ever track down cilantro in Berlin,’ she said. ‘I make really good salsa verde.’”

Hint: Asian stores or the Asian-run fruit/vegetable carts/stores.

Over all, not worth reading, because nothing happens. There is no great line, there is no great insight, there is no great scene. Nothing happens and it’s boring. This isn’t even a book where I write, “It could have been condensed to a novella or a short story,” because something has to happen in a novella or a short story.

[Olga · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. I read it after going to Berlin.

I think this was a different book than the author meant to write. I think she wanted to write a book about Hope, she really did. But Hope isn't interesting, not really. She's sad, and she's a little strong and a little falling apart, but she isn't interesting. Walter is. Walter took over the book, made it about himself.

That's why it doesn't work as well as it could have. Lovely writing, evocative setting, but the story doesn't gel.

I did love the anecdote about getting caught not paying the fare in Berlin. I managed to avoid that while not paying for the train at all. Bad!

[Sonia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because I was about to visit Berlin so I thought it a good idea. The story was okay, the relationship felt flat and I wasn't pulled into the story at all. The only thing I got out of this was a better understanding of voice over actors. I admit I did get a little excited when I turned on the TV in my Berlin hotel room to find Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men" dubbed in German.

[Sherree Funk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book, set in the fall of 2001 in Berlin, highlighting the ongoing recovery of Berlin from years of disfunction following World WarII and the fall of the Berlin wall. Displacement and living as an outsider is a major theme of the work, and Anna Winger has sensitively approached issues that are rarely discussed. Very well-written. Excellent look into the heart of Germans of Jewish descent.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a simple, lovely story about expat/pat friendship in contemporary Berlin. The characters and the city are drawn with detail and warmth. While not a feel-good cop-out, the novel still makes you feel quite good about the possibility of redemptive love, platonic or otherwise.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful story about an American expat in Berlin in the aftermath of 9/11. Smart, strange, surprising--a meditation on guilt and grief, and an intriguing exploration of the intersection between public events and private identity.

[eb · Rating 1 out of 5]

A boring guide to Berlin crossed with accidental chick lit. Ugh.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first three chapters while drinking coffee at a bookstore and promptly bought the book. Winger writes thoughtfully and fluidly, and she draws on her perspective as an American-born journalist living in Berlin to tell an authentic story about life between two cultures seldom compared. The novel isn't only political and historical, though these are two strong points. It's also a perceptive, sometimes moving portrait of regret and a frank consideration of what it takes to move forward.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've lived in Germany both while the Berlin wall was up in the early 80's and later in the 90's once the wall came down. I think this book was interesting to me because of my experiences in Germany in the 80's. In the 80's REO Speedwagon was often on the radio and I laugh to hear it mentioned in the book. I could relate to Walter and his German angst - Hope's experience on the subway.... many aspects of German life.

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely felt like a first novel to me, with its ambitious preoccupations and breezy, spare writing style. It was not as substantial as I'd hoped, in terms of emotional and intellectual weight - but it was engaging, and I did enjoy escaping into Berlin and considering the city from so many different angles. Effective representation of personal and historical disorientation,
which has stuck with me.

[Marcy Dermansky · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was leant to me. I read it and it was easy to read but the wheels of the plot turning were a bit painful. I felt it all coming on -- and the big climax that was necessary, a confrontation between the two main characters, a sex, a refusal of sex, never happened. Hope was a difficult character to like, and if anyone should emphasize with a woman unhappy with her life in Germany it should be me.

[Rita · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yes, this book took me 9 months to read. It was like 9 months of boring and 20 minutes of interest when I got to the last 2 chapters. This book will be one that falls into the abyss of books I've read but completely forget.

[Ben Duhl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Snoozefest. If it wasn't for all the Tom Cruise references I would've dropped it at page 90. Hoping that something would happen when protagonists finally met kept me going. Nothing happened. Awesom

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It had a nice melancholy mood running throughout. It's set in Berlin in 2001, where an American woman who's kind of unhappy forms a friendship with a German man who's kind of unhappy. I read other reviews saying that the book was boring or that nothing happened in it, but it didn't feel that way to me. The plot is low-stakes, but I thought there was still plenty going on, even if it was more internal character stuff than external plot stuff.

[Emma Cate Whitefield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book of 2020 so far. It's a unique story set in Berlin that brings the trauma of the aftermath of 9/11 alongside the darker side of Berlin's history. The characters are well-developed, and for me, it's their development that drives the story has opposed to a fast-paced, action-oriented novel. It paints Berlin in a beautiful and honest way, and as someone who is missing international travel, it was fun to 'watch' as the characters learn about Berlin and themselves in a new place.

I would especially recommend it to anyone who has lives abroad, wants to, or enjoys travel. Living in another country always comes with unanticipated adjustments, and tangible examples in this story ring very true to experience. You learn so much about yourself when you move to a foreign country, and I couldn't help but root for her to succeed!

It's a lovely read, and it's well written. I give high praise to the author as she also write the TV hit series Deutschland 83 and 86.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winger's familiarity with Berlin and inclusion of local color and description had me reliving my travels to the city. She tackles the German capital's hot and cold war-torn history through the stories of two unlikely friends: a former television actor who is now the German-dub voice of Tom Cruise, and an American grieving the loss of her unborn child in an unfamiliar city. While at some points slightly over-sentimental and at others slightly predictable, I enjoyed the story and characters and would recommend this book to anyone fond of German culture and its links to and exchanges with American culture.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this book before I went to Berlin, but found it hard to identify with, but since visited Germany and Berlin especially I can really appreciate the story. The unlikely friendship between two 40ish young people who are stuck with their continual focus on the past and their failings. They meet in the elevator and sympathy develops and their past and secrets and personal histories unfold. A good contribution to the after the Wall literature of Berlin by a young woman who now lives in Berlin. It is funny at times, and other unforgettable. Bittersweet but good.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty quick read, had an interesting enough story. I saw it more as a history of/guide to Berlin, and since I like reading about cities, it was enjoyable. It also goes with my fifth grade love of World War II novels, to an extent. The characters aren't fantastic--Hope is pretty boring, Dave is, too. I like Walter, but his decisions as a character bug me.

[Gaile Wakeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book set in Germany where I am at the moment. This one takes place in Berlin where I visited before the wall came down. The story is a bit thin but there are elements of interest from the point of view of a foreign observer. I have read articles by this author but this novel is not her best writing.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's slow. The story is not the most exciting. You sort of wait for something to happen. But, with all this said, I liked the book. The characters were interesting: sad, frustrating, delusional, at times hopeless. I read it quickly and, while I wouldn't recommended spending 15 bucks on it, pick it up if you see it at The Strand for a dollar. That's what I did. ;)

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love this book, but I still think of the story from time to time. Walter Baum lives in Berlin, Germany. Is 1/2 American. He does dubbing in movies for Tom Cruise. His girlfriend leaves him. Meets an American, Hope, downstairs. He wants her to go to California but they don't. Tells what it is like between East and West Germany after the war.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took this paperback with me on my trip to Berlin last week, after reading a brief review in the NYT. Enjoyable and light. Great for a plane ride or vacation - especially in Berlin, where it takes place. A little formulaic and predictable, but still fun.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

The occasional funny bit about Tom Cruise movies dubbed in German can't save a soupy, sentimental rewrite of Lost in Translation.

[Jkdoran819 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great book throughout but the ending sucked in my opinion! : (

[Erica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting being set in Berlin and learing a bit of historical details but overall didn't like the characters or feel good when reading.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope joins her Jewish husband Dave in Berlin late in 2001. Hope was in NYC during Sept 11; she's also recently had a miscarriage and spends most of her time in the bathtub while Dave is in Poland for work. She meets Walter on the elevator, and they become friends. Walter was a star actor as a teenager and now makes his living dubbing Tom Cruise into German. Walter's mother was American and died when he was young. He left Germany as a young man to search for his grandparents in California. Winger writes her characters well, and the structure of the novel is very strong; the reader has the feeling that she is in good hands. This is a book about the search for meaning/purpose in fractured times, about the difficulty in justifying our very human introspection in times of great social upheaval. Bombs fall, planes crash, and yet individual lives go on, somehow. Some people break up while others fall in love. Winger juxtaposes NYC and Berlin, Sept 11 w/ the fall of the Berlin wall. She overtly plays w/ German and American stereotypes.

The city of Berlin is a wonderful character in this book; I very much want to visit.

[Chiara Bertorelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like the location. I like the German/Jewish parts. I like the fact that the two characters aren't lovers but friends. But that's pretty much it. As many others already said, nothing happens. And I usually really, really like those books in which it's not about the story, but about the characters introspection. But in this book I find the development of the characters' story to be very poor. Much more could have been said about Walter's past or Hope's baby, but everything is narrated in a light tone that I didn't enjoy.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve picked up this book a few times but finally read it all the way through. I kept reading because i wanted to know what happened, but i wasn’t fully intrigued. I wish there was more about Hope and her story. Walter’s perspective was interesting. The book made me want to go to Berlin

[Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS BOOK! It is the kind of complicated love story between two very messed up people that I can’t get enough of. The historical elements set up the story perfectly and allowed me to envision the different locations described in the book. Totally recommend.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Flat characters act out national and romantic cliches in Berlin's most boring settings. Don't waste your time on it.