Long Fiction

Synopsis “The Former Hopeful”

This completed novel explores what happens when coming-of-age confusion collides with societal changes of historic proportions.  

Set in a socialist model city in authoritarian East Germany, the story follows Nina Martell’s tumultuous experiences during the years surrounding the Berlin Wall’s fall. We meet her when she’s a teenaged curious misfit desperate to find friends and excitement in this monotonous world of after school activities and lock-step conformity. 

Despite her academic and athletic achievements, her teachers have started to regard her with suspicion due to minor trespasses, while her classmates try to force her back in line. When a cool girl in black arrives at her school, the two of them join a group of outsiders, finding friendship and first love — while experiencing the harsh grip of the totalitarian regime. Nina runs from the police, watches her friends beaten, while school authorities chastise her for squandering her future.

Then the impossible happens: The Berlin Wall falls in 1989, and with it half of Nina’s problems. At first, euphoria reigns as East Germans receive new money, celebrate victory at the Soccer World Cup, and join West Germany. But the newfound freedom comes with a steep learning curve, and the initial excitement gives way to frustration. 

Soon, Nina stumbles into a world of violence as her friends transform into skinheads who terrorize neighborhoods in the chaotic aftermath of the German Reunification. When the hate and violence escalate, Nina needs to confront her own complicity, rediscover her moral compass and learn to hope again.