hill's second novel, "the day before the berlin wall", is an alternate history of the lead-up to the construction of the berlin wall, based on a legend that was still being told in the mid-1970s, by u.s. army soldiers stationed in berlin. according to the legend, the u.s.a. had advance intelligence of the plans to build the wall. this information included the fact that the east-german engineer troops who were going to build it had been told to halt construction if the americans were to take aggressive action to stop them. this novel has so far won two awards, the most recent being the "stars & flags" book award for historical fiction.