Berlin Syndrome

Berlin Syndrome is a psychological thriller by the Australian writer Melanie Joosten, published in 2012. It is her first novel, and it takes the beginning of a romance and follows it to a place the reader can see coming before Clare does.

One afternoon, close to the tourist crowds at Checkpoint Charlie, Clare meets Andi. The attraction between them is immediate, and when Andi suggests that she stay in his apartment she accepts, because she has been travelling and is glad to have somewhere that feels like a home.

The days pass and the apartment begins to close in on her. Clare starts to ask herself what Andi is actually looking for, and whether it is her company at all. The novel alternates between his point of view and hers, which puts the reader inside the obsession as well as inside the life it has taken over, and it is a study of the power of obsession and of how fluid the truth becomes when two people tell the same story.