Julia Franck Lagerfeuer (Fire Escape) DuMont Literatur und Kunst Verlag, August 2003. 302 pp. ISBN 3-8321-7851-1 Nelly Senff is stopped at the border. She has permission to leave East Germany to marry her West German fiancé. But Nelly still hasn't forgotten her children's father, Wassilij, and she certainly has no intention of marrying anyone else. As the border guards interrogate both her and her children, she has reason to be fearful. But after being subjected to a lengthy interrogation, a humiliating strip search and a medical examination, she is finally allowed to leave. When the family arrive in West Berlin, Nelly's 'fiancé' takes them straight to the Marienfelde transit camp, where they will have to fend for themselves. It is the early 1970s, and life is tough in the transit camp for all the refugees. Krystyna Jablonowska, a former cellist, has come to West Berlin to seek medical help for her brother. She sold her instrument to buy the visas, but now her brother is dying before her eyes. Hans Pischke, a former actor, hasn't left the transit camp in years. Rumours abound about him: perhaps he is an informer? Or is he the only person that Nelly can trust? In the transit camp, no one knows who is spying on whom. After her narrow escape from East Germany, Nelly is cross-examined at length by the CIA. Who is the father of her children? Why did he mysteriously disappear? And why won't Nelly cooperate with their questioning? One of the CIA agents, John Bird, becomes fascinated by Nelly's intransigence, and seeks out her presence. As the paths of the various characters cross, their lives become intimately linked. The atmosphere in the transit camp is charged and emotions run high. Writing with warmth and mute humour, Julia Franck captures the fear and disorientation of life in the camp. This is a powerful story that evokes the claustrophobia and desperation of living between two states.