Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Going Over
    Unavailable
    Going Over
    Unavailable
    Going Over
    Ebook64 pages2 hours

    Going Over

    By Beth Kephart

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    It is February 1983, and Berlin is a divided city with a miles-long barricade separating east from west. But the city isn't the only thing that is divided. Ada lives among the rebels, punkers, and immigrants of Kreuzberg in West Berlin. Stefan lives in East Berlin, in a faceless apartment bunker of Friedrichshain. Bound by love and separated by circumstance, their only chance for a life together lies in a high-risk escape. But will Stefan find the courage to leap? Or will forces beyond his control stand in his way? National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart presents a story of daring and sacrifice, and love that will not wait.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChronicle Books Digital
    Release dateApr 1, 2014
    ISBN9781452132341
    Unavailable
    Going Over
    Author

    Beth Kephart

    Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of books for both adults and young readers, including Going Over, You Are My Only, Small Damages, and Handling the Truth. She lives in Devon, Pennsylvania.

    Read more from Beth Kephart

    Related to Going Over

    Related ebooks

    Young Adult For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The In-betweeners

      Nov 12, 2019

      Two years ago, during the Writing Popular Fiction MFA winter residency at Seton Hill University, a discussion broke out amongst my students in a critique workshop geared toward young adult (YA) writers: They didn’t think YA novels were really written

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Other Child

      Dec 1, 2018

      The Other Child
      9 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Shipstead, Ryan, Walker, and More

      May 17, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Maggie Shipstead, Eimer Ryan, Sarai Walker, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millio

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Fate Of The House

      Jun 6, 2018

      Today, the house on the hill wrestles for air. Pile upon piles of tree branches, bark and dry leaves clutter the driveway. At night it is dark, a ghost house. It wasn’t always like that. Squeezed between coloured Sydenham and Sparks Estate to the eas

      3 min read

    • Article

      “Wicked Fox” Is An Engrossing – If Convoluted – YA Fantasy

      Aug 22, 2019

      Kat Cho’s debut novel “Wicked Fox” is a little complicated, but the poignantly rendered family relationships and fantasy drama are worth the ride.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      When making an axe handlethe pattern is not far off. —Gary Snyder My mother was either horizontal on the couch,or vertical, a plumb line from her spineto the top of her head to the ceiling that spinswhen she drinks, alcohol and an air bubbletrapped,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Who Was That Girl?

      Apr 21, 2021

      Who Was That Girl?
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Beyoğlu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra

      Jun 8, 2021

      Selim the half-wit hoarded everything—that was the story they told me my first day in waste management. Selim had lost his wife, and I guess everyone figured he took up hoarding as a way to fill the void. It started out with stuff his wife might have

      24 min read

    • Article

      Your Poetry

      May 28, 2021

      Email your poems to: (editorial@choicemag.co.uk) or post to Your Poetry, Choice, 4 Milnyard Square, Orton Southgate, Peterborough PE2 6GX There’s a train that runs on barren track, along the side & at the back,of the caravan. The children laugh & sho

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Trouble Gene

      Jul 1, 2020

      One clear thing about trouble—it can set you back to zero, a personal cone of silence. And reading, writing, listening allow entry into that troubled solitude; you disappear into it regardless t of the time or place you really are in, be it bed, kitc

      12 min read

    • Article

      It’s Come to This

      Sep 1, 2021

      It’s Come to This
      16 min read

    • Article

      The Portrait

      Mar 1, 2018

      I WAS BORN almost completely deaf, and by the time I was seven I had already become a prisoner to my education. In the morning, I had speech therapy and tutoring with Mr. Bishop. We sat at my family’s long dining-room table, which was always covered

      9 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Dec 1, 2023

      Table Talk
      8 min read

    • Article

      Somebody Else Sold The World

      Nov 1, 2020

      & before I knew it, the violet skyflagged with the sun’s violentdemands: for magnolias in bloom,for natural light, anyplace withoutlocks or doors. Different kindsof masks for being & breathing.The antagonists with their vanitytans sang the usual jing

      3 min read

    • Article

      Can’t You Tell the Difference?

      Jun 1, 2019

      Can’t You Tell the Difference?
      10 min read

    • Article

      Aughts

      Sep 11, 2017

      Aughts
      23 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2024

      I was trying to look a little less like myselfand more like other humans, humans who belonged, so I put on a skort.Purchased in another life, when I had a husband and wrote thank-you notes and held dinner parties,the skort even had its own little poc

      6 min read

    • Article

      Self-portraits

      May 5, 2021

      I’M having my portrait painted. I can give you several excellent objective reasons for this. A painting of my wife executed some years ago seems lonely without a pair to it, we agree; her words, not mine. Other generations of our family hang around t

      2 min read

    Reviews for Going Over

    3.5/5

    32 ratings10 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Beth Kephart’s Young Adult books are certainly not defined geographically. Dangerous Neighbors takes place in her beloved Philadelphia and draws us into the 1876 Centennial Exposition. From there we move to The Heart is Not a Size and an impoverished town in Juarez, Mexico. Then Small Damages, where a young girl finds herself, both geographically and spiritually, on the outskirts of Seville, Spain. Even her ‘adult’ books can’t stay in one place. Still Love in Strange Places, A Memoir recounts her visit to her husband’s family in El Salvador. Any and all of these books are wonderful reading, literary treats.So, is it no wonder that her latest YA book, Going Over, takes us to Berlin and life during the era of the Berlin Wall? Ada, her mother and Grandmother (Omi) live in a cramped apartment in West Berlin while the love of Ada’s life, Stefan and his grandmother (and Omi’s best friend) live in East Berlin, separated by the impenetrable Wall. Although not spelled out (but this book inspired me to find out more), West Berlin imported many transient workers in the 1950s and later, to help create the booming economy of a victorious, democratic nation. Many of these workers were from Turkey and their Moslem culture and upbringing were completely foreign (no pun intended) to Germans, thus they never fit in. However they make a sizable community in Germany.So, in addition to the virtually overnight, arbitrary separation of family and friends caused by the Berlin Wall, the West Germans were dealing with an ethnic group it didn’t understand. Ada is caught up in this as she teaches in a church school attended by some Turkish children, one of whom, Savas has run away. She finds him hiding in the classroom in the wee hours of the morning because he is afraid–afraid of what his father might do to his mother, who is secretly planning on returning to Turkey.Kephart contrasts the freedom of Ada and her fervent desire that Stefan escape and join her in the West with the fear of living in East Berlin, the Stasi always listening, never knowing who to trust. Ada can visit Stefan, cross the border, only several times a year. Successful escapes are few we learn (5,000 escapes, with 100 unsuccessful tries) and Ada graffs the spectacular successes on a wall facing East Berlin, hoping to inspire Stefan.What’s Going Over about? It’s about love and freedom and equality. It’s about hardship and struggle and overcoming the odds. It’s about diversity and fitting into a new culture. The writing is true Beth Kephart, literary, descriptive, lyrical. The characters become your friends. You are there! The story grabs your heartstrings on so many levels, Stefan and Ada, Savas, Omi.Going Over is about a time period that most of us have probably forgotten about. But we really shouldn’t forget. There are real and virtual walls in existence today. Going Over is a great way to remember.
    • 1/5
      This was a tough one that I could not finish. I was excited to receive the book as I am always looking for new books to share with my students. I was confused from the beginning about the characters, who was who....what the direction of the story was.The writing style is different but not unreadable.I am sure others may find the story interesting and may not have the problems I did. Please give the book a try and judge for yourself.
    • 5/5
      I think many of the reviews of "Going Over" were a little harsh - I absolutely loved the book! It's not written in the most traditional way, but it gives you insight into the inner thoughts of the two central characters. I don't think it's fair to criticize the author's use of first and second person. She made a decision and I think she did very well with the execution of it. I really got pulled into the love and loss portrayed in the book. The imagery Kephart creates is beautiful and imaginative, and the words she chooses make the story come alive.
    • 4/5
      I adored this book - I loved the perspectives of both Ada and Stefan and I got caught up in the story of the Turkish woman - it's just an amazing book especially since you don't really ever see any young adult books set in the time of the Berlin Wall since kids now a days don't remember a split Germany! Such a great novel!
    • 4/5
      Ada lives on the West side, and Stefan lives on the East side. It's 1983, and the Berlin wall still stands. How can they live their lives together separately?A story full of love, loss, and hope that will haunt readers when the words on the page are finished.
    • 1/5
      I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. I was really excited when I found out I won this book because it sounded so interesting - lovers separated by the Berlin Wall? Sounds fascinating. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into it at all. I wasn't a fan of the writing style and I did not like Ada, so I found the story impossible to get invested in.
    • 3/5
      Have you ever read a book that you knew, instinctively, that you have to love it even though you don't like it very much? Often, I'll pick up a very artistic, beautifully written book and feel disconnected in that way. I love the idea behind the book, I love the way the words flow and the images that the book is evoking in my imagination, but I really just don't like the book very much. Unfortunately, GOING OVER by Beth Kephart was one of those books for me.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on July 19, 2014.
    • 4/5
      I received a review copy of Going Over from the publisher. I love Berlin, and I am a bit of a romantic at times, so when I learned about this book and saw that I might be able to get an ARC, I jumped at the chance. (Unfortunately another ARC I was reading stalled me and this book actually came out in April, before I was able to read it.)I'm a sucker for the kinds of people Kephart writes about in Going Over--artistic, creative types, sometimes on the fringes, who face challenges, but who have close if not perfect ties to a small group of family and friends. In this book the main characters are Ada, an almost 16-year-old graffiti artist and daycare center worker living with her mother and grandmother in West Berlin, and her love, Stefan, who lives with his grandmother, studies engineering (a path chosen for him by the state), and gazes at the stars in East Berlin. If I weren't a sucker for the kinds of characters Kephart describes--pink-haired and tattooed and dreadlocked and punked up (and mind you this is the 1980s, so those kinds of things were still a tad on the rebellious or unusual end of the social spectrum), I might find it all a bit posed--trying a bit too hard. Kephart's characters are pretty convincing, though. It works. Ada can sometimes visit Stefan, but he can never visit her. The book is long on dramatics and short on any sort of humor. That's okay--this is not funny stuff--yet sometimes it feels a tad overwrought. Kephart's penchant for short, dramatic sentences contributes to that feeling. That got a little annoying at times, but given the subject matter and the young adult audience I let it go. Ada is very much a lovestruck teenager, and when you combine that with her job bringing her in contact with the struggles of the Turkish community and the fact that she's desperate for Stefan to escape from the East, it's understandable. Kephart's descriptions can be quite lovely. I have a vivid picture in my head of one pivotal scene that happens late at night on snow-covered streets. I can see some characters very well in my mind--particularly Ada and Lukas, a character who shows up in the East later in the book. If the book doesn't always balance tension with some sort of relief, it does manage to balance the light and the dark. Some outcomes are very bleak, some are hopeful, and some are left unknown... sort of "what now?" At least, I see the unknown. I kind of like that ending. What happens now?So, overall? Going Over isn't brilliant, but it's very enjoyable. 3.5 stars.
    • 4/5
      I have never finished reading this book but I can tell it was going to be a good book.Just go ahead and read it you will love it.
    • 4/5
      Originally posted at: A Girl that Likes BooksEverybody has a plan, I guess. We're all on a missionWhy I read this bookI got this book through the Early Reviewers program from LybraryThing in exchange of an honest review. The reason why I asked for this book was because I have never read a book based in this time period in Germany and the fact that it was written from a YA point of view, from both sides of the wall was very interesting to me.What the book is aboutDuring the early 1980s, on a divided Germany, we encounter 2 teenagers that grew up together thanks to the friendship of their grandmothers. They fell in love, even though they see each other 4 times a year at most. Ada lives on the East side of the wall, has colored hair and is an artist. Stefan lives on the West side of the wall and works on a job chosen for him. At night, both dream of joining each other.First impressionsBeth Kephart did a wonderful job giving both Ada and Stephan their own voices. I like the fact that she didn't tried too hard to make them sound like teenagers and just went with simple, heartfelt dialogues and inner monologues. The side stories were as touching and well built as the main story itself.Final thoughtsI am so happy I got a copy of this book. It was a beautiful story with very touching characters. The hope in both of the main characters mixed with Stefan's fear and Ada's energy made the jumping between chapters fast paced and made me want to turn the pages faster to know that things would be ok for everyone.It is not just a happy story though. As it would be expected in a story built around the Berlin Wall there is quite a bit of social commentary; the differences between the 2 sides, the gastareiter, the people who tried and failed or succeed going from West to East. This social part of the story blends seamlessly with the life of Ada and Stephan, pushing their relationship to another level.Because people who run don't want to be caught. People who hide don't want to be found.