Leaving Berlin

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Berlin 1949. Alex Meier, a young Jewish writer, fled the Nazis for America before the war. But the politics of his youth have now put him in the crosshairs of the McCarthy witch-hunts. Faced with deportation and the loss of his family, he makes a desperate bargain with the fledgling CIA: he will earn his way back to America by acting as their agent in his native Berlin.
But almost from the start things go fatally wrong. A kidnapping misfires, an East German agent is killed, and Alex finds himself a wanted man. Worse, he discovers his real assignment - to spy on the woman he left behind, the only woman he has ever loved. Changing sides in Berlin is as easy as crossing a sector border. But where do we draw the lines of our moral boundaries? Betrayal? Survival? Murder?

I have been a fan of post-WW2 / Cold War novels for a long time. So many great novels out there - and this should be added to that list.

There is something very gritty and bleak about the setting. I didn't have to think too hard about the rubble remains of Berlin - the author put it into my head perfectly. I could almost feel the bullets zinging over my head as the Germans didn't particularly like Allies steeping out of their zones...

The characters work into this setting in such a way that I never stopped to think "does this guy belong here?" It seems to be a bit of a problem in some historical thrillers that MC's seem to have been transplanted from modern-day Hollywood and never seem to match the environment they are in. Not the case here, at all.

The biggest winner, though, was the prose/storytelling. There is a sparsity to the writing (maybe mirroring the remains of Berlin) that doesn't allow you to breath - it sucks you in as there are no wasted words, no chance to put the book down and walk away. That is a skill that I admire.

Missed out on a 5th star because of the unnecessary (in my mind) abundance of characters. When I have to stop to remember who someone is, then there is a good chance that the book is starting to get a little overloaded in characters.

However, that doesn't detract too much from the actual storytelling - and I have no trouble recommending this book at all!


Paul
ARH