The House of One Thousand Eyes By Michelle Barker Annick, 340 pages, $19.95, ages 14 and up

This compulsive page-turner takes us into the heart of East Berlin in the1980s, where 17-year-old Lena lives with her stern, devotedly Communist aunt, and works as a night janitor at Stasi headquarters. Ever since her nervous breakdown when her parents were killed in an “incident,” Lena has thought of herself as “simple”. But she’s not so simple that she doesn’t know something ’s wrong when her beloved uncle, a writer, disappears — along with all record of his existence. Suspense is high as Lena struggles to learn her uncle’s fate, discerning who is to be trusted; who is not, and enduring the abusive sexual predation of a Stasi official. Barker knows the art of making every sentence count, from Lena’s pleasure at “sandwiches with butter!” to the eerily violent image of photographs defaced with pinking shears that leave “zigzag patterns, like teeth.” The story has the propulsion of a thriller, but Barker’s observant, poetic language gives it a deep, dark texture, offering layer upon layer of historical and psychological richness.