She used classified ads to reach former members of the Stasi and anti-Stasi organizations and interviewed them extensively.

The association GBM (German: Gesellschaft zum Schutz von Bürgerrecht und Menschenwürde, lit.

'Society for the Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity') obtained an interim injunction in Germany against the publication.

[3] Chris Mitchell of Spike Magazine called it "an essential insight into the totalitarian regime".

[4] Giles MacDonogh wrote in The Guardian that the culture of informants and moral capitulations "comes wonderfully to life in Funder's racy account".