National Book Award Non Fiction Winner

The Haunted Land

by Tina Rosenberg

Summary

A reporter's investigation into how the post-communist nations of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and East Germany confronted—or evaded—the crimes of their former regimes. Rosenberg follows informers, dissidents, and prosecutors through trials, lustration laws, and secret-police archives, asking what justice can mean after totalitarianism. The book became a key text in the emerging field of transitional justice.

Historical Context & Significance

Rosenberg was the first woman to win the award for a work of international political reportage, focusing on the "lustration" laws that followed the Cold War.