Stasiland, by Anna Funder

My God, just one of the greatest books I have ever read.
This is nonfiction but it's written like the best of novels, both in terms of narrativity and in the author's first-person-ness, she's a character in her own right and doesn't try to hide it, and it makes the book so much better. It's one of the strongest feelings I've ever gotten from a book that its value-over-replacement is... a lot, it's just so-so-so-much better than a different book by a different author on the same subject would have been.

Regarding its subjects -- East Germans who either suffered under or were members of the Stasi, the secret police -- her interviews and profiles are so deep they feel invasive. I don't understand how the author got people to open up to her so much, or allowed her to publish these ridiculously private things, it's just the greatest gallery of psychological portraiture I've ever encountered. One of its great strengths is sitting with people who did incredible evil, and with people who had incredible evil done to them, and just... being there.

It's also, just, incredibly touching and moving and profound, and made me feel more-properly grateful for the ridiculously privileged life I've had, with its unusually-generous portion of freedom, and I should feel that every day and tend to forget it.

Overall: just cannot recommend this book highly enough.