Topic: Bookreview: Zoo station (Read 126 times)

“Zoo station” is based on a true story, the story of Christiane F. It includes friendship, trouble at school, family problems, drama, prostitution and drugs.The story is written by two journalists Kay Herman and Horst Rieck, but through the eyes of Christiane Vera Felscherinow.
It's funny, they wanted to interview some teenagers for a series in the “Stern” and they started by Christiane and she had so much to tell, that they decided to make a book out of it.

It starts when Christiane is a young girl who changes her address many times. She ends up in Gropiusstadt, a subsection of Berlin, Germany. At 12 she starts smoking pot and drinking. At 13 she’s snorting heroin and at 14 she’s selling her body for her next fix. She makes a lot of new friends and also loses many of them. She meets a boy, Detlef, and falls in love with him. He’s a heroin addict too and with Christiane he starts drug rehabilitation many times, but after a while they’re going on the same routine: first they go to Zoo station to sell their bodies, then they buy some dope and take a shot.

The setting is presented with photographic detail in the middle of the book, so you see how Berlin and the people looked like. There are also some parts, where her mother tells something about Christiane’s life. I like those details.

It's very interesting to read about Christiane. There exists also a film about her, but in my opinion the book is way better. In the film are missing many details and some parts of the story.