Berlin has become one of Europe’s most desired destinations. In Berlin Now, writer and longtime resident Peter Schneider wonders why this should be. The city, he confesses, is Europe’s “ugliest capital.” Landmark buildings are few, the skyline is low, and yet Berlin has enviable advantages in the tourist trade. The bars have no closing time, the beer is cheap and the city is served by fast, reliable mass transit. It’s a party town and, paradoxically, a place of morbid fascination for its Nazi, Communist and Allied-occupied past. Berlin Now is a work of exceptional travel writing by a writer who needs to travel no more than 10 miles in either direction from home.
