* {{official website|http://ninawillner.com}}
* {{official website|http://ninawillner.com}}
* [https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/books-and-authors/best-books-amazon-2025?fbclid=IwY2xjawOBgklleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEevW1XaZQ9YFC5_XFtBvs0wWMsyFY2OMnfK2QdjxVgtuurEPMX0u0OHWBkoqg_aem_-dFIYni_iZ5fACAM4tKSQg ”Amazon Best Books of 2025”]
* [https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/books-and-authors/best-books-amazon-2025?fbclid=IwY2xjawOBgklleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEevW1XaZQ9YFC5_XFtBvs0wWMsyFY2OMnfK2QdjxVgtuurEPMX0u0OHWBkoqg_aem_-dFIYni_iZ5fACAM4tKSQg ”Amazon Best Books of 2025”]
* [https://airmail.news/books/2025/7/band-of-brothers “Band of Brothers: After surviving Auschwitz, a Jewish boy was saved by a company of American soldiers barely older than himself,”] ”Air Mail,” Jul 24, 2025
* [https://airmail.news/books/2025/7/band-of-brothers “Band of Brothers,”] ”Air Mail,” Jul 24, 2025
* [https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/13-books-we-read-this-week-64cc9e0f “Wall Street Journal,”] Aug 22, 2025
* [https://chicagobookreview.com/review/the-boys-in-the-light-an-extraordinary-world-war-ii-story-of-survival-faith-and-brotherhood/ “Chicago Book Review,”] by Philip Zozzaro, Oct 2026
* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/08/08/more-summer-reading-recommendations/ “Washington Post,”] Aug 8, 2025
* [https://www.boston.com/community/readers-say/2025/10/02/10-best-books-to-read-this-fall-according-to-boston-com-readers/https://www.boston.com/community/readers-say/2025/10/02/10-best-books-to-read-this-fall-according-to-boston-com-readers/ “10 Best Books to Read This Fall,”] by Annie Jonas, ” Boston.com”, Oct 2, 2025
* [https://www.pressherald.com/2025/10/20/realizing-at-last-that-history-matters/?copylink=truehttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.pressherald.com%2F2025%2F10%2F20%2Frealizing-at-last-that-history-matters%2F%3Fcopylink%3Dtrue&fbclid=IwY2xjawN5nbZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeoyxEAb3qTA_LlHYACDbgKKf_CklBlxQhpG2iEBGEWJ2kfVLIEaGxCAWgutM_aem_UUjg4U-MqS7QfJu8TX1Exg “Realizing (at last) that history matters,”] by David Treadwell, ”Portland Press Herald,”
* [https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2016/1220/15-best-nonfiction-books-of-2016/Forty-Autumns-by-Nina-Willner “15 Best Nonfiction Books of 2016,”] ”The Christian Science Monitor,” Dec 20, 2016
* [https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2016/1220/15-best-nonfiction-books-of-2016/Forty-Autumns-by-Nina-Willner “15 Best Nonfiction Books of 2016,”] ”The Christian Science Monitor,” Dec 20, 2016
* [https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/new-memoirs-trace-identity-exile-and-exclusion-germany-latvia-and-india “New memoirs trace identity, exile and exclusion in Germany, Latvia and India,”] by Diane Scharper, ”National Catholic Reporter”, Dec 6, 2017
* [https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/new-memoirs-trace-identity-exile-and-exclusion-germany-latvia-and-india “New memoirs trace identity, exile and exclusion in Germany, Latvia and India,”] by Diane Scharper, ”National Catholic Reporter”, Dec 6, 2017
* [http://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2017/01/a-year-of-reading-my-favourite-books-of.html “A Year of Reading: My Favourite Books of 2016,”] by Bob Douglas, ”Critics At Large”, Jan 7, 2017
* [http://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2017/01/a-year-of-reading-my-favourite-books-of.html “A Year of Reading: My Favourite Books of 2016,”] by Bob Douglas, ”Critics At Large”, Jan 7, 2017
* [https://www.uso.org/stories/191-eddie-willner-a-survivor “Eddie Willner: A Survivor,”] by Nina Willner, ”USO On Patrol”, Sep 19, 2015
* [https://www.uso.org/stories/191-eddie-willner-a-survivor “Eddie Willner: A Survivor,”] by Nina Willner, ”USO On Patrol”, Sep 19, 2015
* [https://www.libraryjournal.com/?reviewDetail=forty-autumns-a-familys-story-of-courage-and-survival-on-both-sides-of-the-berlin-wall “Nonfiction: Forty Autumns,”] by Rebecca Hill, ”Library Journal” (starred review) Sep 15, 2016
* [https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-241031-3 “Forty Autumns,”] ”Publishers Weekly”
* [http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-books-1012-forty-autumns-nina-willner-20161006-story.html “Forty Autumns: A powerful family history covering both sides of the Berlin Wall,”] by Julia M. Klein, ”The Chicago Tribune”, Oct 7, 2016
* [http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-books-1012-forty-autumns-nina-willner-20161006-story.html “Forty Autumns: A powerful family history covering both sides of the Berlin Wall,”] by Julia M. Klein, ”The Chicago Tribune”, Oct 7, 2016
* ”[https://manhattanbookreview.com/product/forty-autumns-a-familys-story-of-courage-and-survival-on-both-sides-of-the-berlin-wall/ “Biography and Memoir,”] by Julia McMichael, Manhattan Book Review”
* [http://www.startribune.com/review-forty-autumns-by-nina-willner/400758371/ “The Iron Curtain Rises Again,”] by Maureen McCarthy, ”Star Tribune”, Nov 11, 2016
* [https://www.thejc.com/review-forty-autumns-1.148038 “Western girl’s emotional journey east to adulthood,”] by Marina Gerner, The ”Jewish Chronicle”, Dec 1, 2016
American nonfiction author, former intelligence officer and human rights activist
Nina Willner is an American nonfiction author, a former intelligence officer and human rights activist. Her first book Forty Autumns A Family’s Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall (HarperCollins William Morrow, 2016, ISBN 0062410318) is the story of Willner’s mother’s escape from communist East Germany at age 20, the large family she left behind the Iron Curtain, and their four-decade journey to reunite. During the Cold War, Willner led classified missions in Soviet-controlled East Berlin. Willner uses her personal story to tell the broader story of the Cold War and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
Forty Autumns was named “Top 15 Nonfiction Books of 2016” by Christian Science Monitor and Kirkus Reviews praised it as a book that “celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.” The book has been sold in the US, UK, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Holland, Slovakia, Brazil and China.
Willner’s next book The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary WWII Story of Survival, Faith and Brotherhood named #3 Amazon Editors Best Book for 2025, was published in July 2025 by Penguin Random House (Dutton), and is a narrative nonfiction about the true story of her father, Eddie Willner‘s journey through the Holocaust as a boy and being rescued and adopted by the a company of young American tankers of the 3rd Armored Division.
Early life and education
Willner grew up mostly in Falls Church, Virginia. She graduated from James Madison University. She has five siblings. She is Jewish.
Career
Prior to her writing career, Willner was a US Army intelligence officer who began her career in Berlin during the Cold War. As a lieutenant, she earned airborne and aircrew wings and led classified ground and air collection missions operating on Soviet territory in (and over) East Berlin. She left the army as a captain, worked in America’s most sensitive intelligence agencies, and later at American Embassies. She worked in democracy grant programs, as the director of international women’s organizations and nonprofits promoting human rights, education, women’s and children’s causes.
Personal life
Willner has lived in Istanbul, Moscow, Minsk, Prague, Ottawa, Berlin and in Japan. She currently resides in Washington DC where she writes full time.
References
External links
- Official website
- Amazon Best Books of 2025
- “Band of Brothers,” Air Mail, Jul 24, 2025
- “Wall Street Journal,” Aug 22, 2025
- “Chicago Book Review,” by Philip Zozzaro, Oct 2026
- “Washington Post,” Aug 8, 2025
- “10 Best Books to Read This Fall,” by Annie Jonas, Boston.com, Oct 2, 2025
- “Realizing (at last) that history matters,” by David Treadwell, Portland Press Herald,
- “15 Best Nonfiction Books of 2016,” The Christian Science Monitor, Dec 20, 2016
- “New memoirs trace identity, exile and exclusion in Germany, Latvia and India,” by Diane Scharper, National Catholic Reporter, Dec 6, 2017
- “Forty Years of Family Life Lost Behind the Iron Curtain,” by Giulia Rhodes, The Guardian, Oct 8, 2016
- “A Year of Reading: My Favourite Books of 2016,” by Bob Douglas, Critics At Large, Jan 7, 2017
- “Eddie Willner: A Survivor,” by Nina Willner, USO On Patrol, Sep 19, 2015
- “Forty Autumns: A powerful family history covering both sides of the Berlin Wall,” by Julia M. Klein, The Chicago Tribune, Oct 7, 2016
