Book review | A Week in Berlin
A Week in Berlin
By Angelina Der Arakelian-Dennington
Published in September 2025
274 pages
What if you could go back in time and change history? What would you give up to save others? “A Week in Berlin” explores these questions through the story of Badrig Serdovian. The main protagonist, Badrig, faces the harsh realities of genocide, war, enslavement and occupation in different places, with the author grounding the story in real historical events — the Armenian Genocide, chattel slavery in the United States and key points in Berlin’s history.
This story blends various genres, including time travel, speculative fiction, magic realism and historical fiction, revolving around themes of survival, guilt, trauma and memory. Badrig survives near-fatal experiences during the 1915 Armenian Genocide, coping with the ravages of survivor’s guilt as he loses his family and friends. To manage his pain, he decides to forget everything — his name, his past and all that he was. He becomes Patrick Ser in France, where he starts a new life with a good job, a home and a wife named Josephine; however, he learns that he cannot escape his past.
As Patrick experiences flashbacks and begins to see his former wife, whose brutal murder he had witnessed, he discovers that he is time-traveling, moving between different worlds. He meets George Gurdjieff, who teaches him about inner time, helping him manage his flashbacks. Badrig, now Patrick, learns about “The Sequence,” where every moment is connected. While most people move through it in a straight line, Patrick is stuck in a vortex, slipping between his past and future, remembering events that haven’t yet happened or returning to lost moments.
Through his travels, Patrick meets Joseph, a kindred spirit and fellow time-traveler from 1708 in coastal South Carolina. Joseph is the child of an enslaved person who witnessed his mother’s murder and felt powerless to change it. Patrick, moved by his story, wants to help change what happened to Joseph’s mother.
Another critical moment comes when he hears about Soghomon Tehlirian being arrested for assassinating Talaat Pasha. The Armenian Genocide begins to fade from memory, but this one act keeps it alive. It makes Patrick reflect on his own failure to protect his family.
Patrick feels drawn to Berlin, where he stands at the crossroads of three distinct time periods: the 19th century, marked by hope in steel and steam; the post-war ruins, characterized by ash and resistance; and a future skyline shrouded in uncertainty. He is compelled to visit the Oberbaum Bridge, a crucial link between areas divided by the Berlin Wall, now a symbol of unity. The bridge changes in his view. Sometimes it looks dirty and old, and at other times it appears clean, as if time were rewriting history. Flags from different regimes, oppressive swastikas, bold Soviet red and logos from an unknown future, flutter around him, each demanding recognition while trying to erase its predecessor.
Berlin tightly holds onto its history, remembering the Spartacist uprising, the burning of books and the walls people will tear down in the future. It is as if time does not rest, keeping Berlin from healing. It keeps reopening old wounds and allowing history to repeat itself, which is why the “Forces of Time” focus their efforts there.
The understanding of “the Sequence of Time” in a place that allows history to repeat itself has a profound effect on Patrick and the power he believes he can claim. The book concludes with Patrick Ser reclaiming his birth name and history, Badrig Serdovian, while making crucial choices that affect not only Joseph and his family but also Badrig’s own.
“A Week in Berlin” is highly recommended for readers interested in original perspectives, creative writing styles and those who appreciate historical fiction blended with science fiction, particularly in the context of the Armenian Genocide.
