Katrin Costa

Katrin Costa

Katrin Costa was born in East Germany and has always been drawn to stories of courage, resilience, and the choices that shape a life. In her early twenties she escaped through Prague into West Germany, stepping into a life she had to rebuild from nothing. Katrin moved through refugee camps, faced unfamiliar systems, and learned to navigate a society where opportunity and indifference sat side by side. She now writes about ordinary people facing extraordinary moments – and about the quiet bravery it takes to begin again. The Girl in the Purple Jacket is her long-awaited memoir-inspired novel.

Katrin's writing style reflects her years of dedication to learning and developing her craft, as well as her journey of telling her story in a second language. German is her first language, and she didn’t speak or understand English until she was 25. Her writing is poetic yet simple, using short, rhythmic phrases and everyday language to tell deeply personal stories. The result is an intimate and accessible style that captures both the ordinary and the profoundly difficult moments of her life.

The Girl in the

Purple Jacket

Inspired by the True Story of One Woman's Courageous Escape from Behind the Iron Curtain

She would rather risk death than spend one more day under the former GDR communist regime.

The Girl in the Purple Jacket traces the true story of Katrin Costa through the character Karlina, born in East Germany in 1969 under the constraints of the Cold War. Growing up behind the Iron Curtain, she carried an early, instinctive knowing that life should be larger than the narrow future laid out for her. This inner knowing became the quiet compass she followed on faith, even when the world gave her nothing to believe in.

At twenty, she risked everything to escape through Prague into West Germany, carrying little more than determination, a purple jacket given in kindness, and an unshakable belief that a better life was possible.

For Karlina, the crossing became a silent test of instinct, fear and courage, marking the moment she began rebuilding herself from the ground up. She moved through refugee camps and unfamiliar systems, learning to survive in a society shaped by both opportunity and indifference, where freedom brought possibilities she had never known, but also loneliness, uncertainty and the challenge of starting over with nothing.