The theme of keeping secrets flows predominantly through this novel. Berlin in 1943 is not a good place to tell a secret.

I’ve multiple confessions to make and I hope you don’t mind, but I want to start by getting them off my chest. First off, I’ve had an ARC of Otto de Kat’s News From Berlin on my kindle since July 2015. I’d been intrigued by the premise, but wasn’t actually inspired to pick it up until I found myself looking to rebound from a disappointing run-in with Kelly Durham’s Berlin Calling last December. I also imagine the title as spoken by Jim Carrey impersonating Walter Cronkite in Bruce Almighty every time I see it, but that last admission seems far less damning than the other two. I wish I could say this is the first time I’d sat an ARC so long, but it’d be a blatant lie and as to rebounding, well, let’s just be happy we’re talking books rather than relationships.

I think it safe to assume that if you’re still with me at this point you want to know how I actually felt about the book. I wont assume you’ve forgiven my transgressions, but when push comes to shove it’s not how you came to a novel that matters, it’s how it made feel about the content and in that regard I think News From Berlin has a lot in common with The Wherewithal. There is a loose parallel in terms of time periods, but the similarities I refer to have more to do with the open-ended thoughts the narratives leave in their respective wakes. The conclusions feel right, but both books inspire lingering questions about the ideas and themes expressed between their pages.

A working knowledge of Operation Barbarossa is not required to follow the historic events of the narrative, but a basic familiarity with the invasion affords greater insight to the significance of the information that falls into Verschuur’s possession. I didn’t feel the cast of particular note, but it should be mentioned that News From Berlin wasn’t written as and doesn’t pretend to be character driven fiction. The author is deeply invested in the political and emotional themes of the story and that is where his work truly shines.