The Good German
1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by darkhorse4460 from Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on Saturday, March 28, 2020
Jake Geismar cut his teeth as a foreign correspondent in pre-war Berlin. When he returns in 1945 to cover the Potsdam conference he finds the city unrecognisable - streets have vanished beneath the rubble, familiar landmarks truncated by high explosive. But amongst the ruins Berliners survive, including some he knew and, miraculously, his lost love, Lena. However, in the same way she refused to leave with him before the war, Lena won't join him now without finding her husband and Emil has disappeared from the safe care of the Americans who, turning a blind eye to his links with Hitler, want his expertise as a rocket designer for themselves.
Trawling through the shambles of the city, through the illegal night clubs and the thriving black market, Jake discovers that the twilight war of intrigue between west and east has already begun and that he could quite easily be one of its first casualties.
This is a good novel, my enjoyment and concentration were interrupted by events however so I probably can’t do it justice. It took me a while and I lost a little focus when it came to plotting and characters (so many German names, but not all of them German!!)
A vivid recreation of Berlin 1n 1945, a city pulverised by bombing and fighting, its citizens, slaughtered, raped, enslaved, starved and beaten. Now being sliced up by the Americans, British and Russians with the new alignments and battles of the Cold War not far beneath the surface.
An American journalist returns to the city where he once lived to cover the Potsdam Conference but also to try and find the woman he loved. He gets more than he bargained for.
Yes it’s a complicated plot involving a murdered American, stolen files and a German academic who both the Russians and Americans want to help them build rockets. Nobody, it seems, can be trusted.
How culpable were the ‘ordinary’ Germans for the terrible crimes committed by the Nazis? Did they all collude and is there such a thing as a ‘Good German’. Were and are the British and American’s blameless? These question and so many ethical dilemmas in the aftermath of war underlie an exciting at atmospheric thriller.
Trawling through the shambles of the city, through the illegal night clubs and the thriving black market, Jake discovers that the twilight war of intrigue between west and east has already begun and that he could quite easily be one of its first casualties.
This is a good novel, my enjoyment and concentration were interrupted by events however so I probably can’t do it justice. It took me a while and I lost a little focus when it came to plotting and characters (so many German names, but not all of them German!!)
A vivid recreation of Berlin 1n 1945, a city pulverised by bombing and fighting, its citizens, slaughtered, raped, enslaved, starved and beaten. Now being sliced up by the Americans, British and Russians with the new alignments and battles of the Cold War not far beneath the surface.
An American journalist returns to the city where he once lived to cover the Potsdam Conference but also to try and find the woman he loved. He gets more than he bargained for.
Yes it’s a complicated plot involving a murdered American, stolen files and a German academic who both the Russians and Americans want to help them build rockets. Nobody, it seems, can be trusted.
How culpable were the ‘ordinary’ Germans for the terrible crimes committed by the Nazis? Did they all collude and is there such a thing as a ‘Good German’. Were and are the British and American’s blameless? These question and so many ethical dilemmas in the aftermath of war underlie an exciting at atmospheric thriller.
