Stasiland

Miriam is the resister that figures most centrally to the book and with whom Funder develops the closest bond. Funder takes an interest in the wrongful death of her husband, Charlie, and her search for the truth about it.

Miriam is a resister of the regime from the age of sixteen. For passing out provocative flyers, she is placed in a cell and subjected to sleep deprivation. She remains under Stasi surveillance thereafter. She and Charlie are in and out of prison. During one term in a remand cell, Charlie dies. The funeral is suspicious and there are Stasi officers all around it. They claim he had hung himself, but when Miriam saw his body, there weren’t any marks around his neck. Miriam has hope that the puzzle women in Nuremberg will piece together some information that will tell her what happened to her husband. Her story becomes an emotional through-line in the book.

Herr Winz is the first Stasi man Funder meets with. He insists on meeting covertly in Potsdam. He seems keener on discussing the ways he is being persecuted for his affiliations with the Stasi today. He gives her a copy of The Communist Manifesto at the end of their meeting, in the hope that she will bring the good word of socialism back to Australia.