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Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:By 1939, Anglo-American journalist John Russell has spent over a decade in Berlin, where his son lives with his mother. He writes human-interest pieces for British and American papers, avoiding the investigative journalism that could get him deported. But as World War II approaches, he faces having to leave his son as well as his girlfriend of several years, a beautiful German starlet. When an acquaintance from his old communist days approaches him to do some work for the Soviets, Russell is reluctant, but he is unable to resist the offer. He becomes involved in other dangerous activities, helping a Jewish family and a determined young American reporter. When the British and the Nazis notice his involvement with the Soviets, Russell is dragged into the murky world of warring intelligence services.… (more)
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What then does he do when he stumbles on an enormous story, one that the rest of the world really should see to get a true picture of how far the Nazi regime is willing to go to keep their bloodlines pure. Another journalist has already been killed over this story, and the hunt is on for the letters and documents that would reveal their plans. At the same time John agrees to teach English to a couple of Jewish girls whose parents are trying desperately to get the family, or at least the children out of Germany. When the father is accused of a crime and the mother is refused a Visa, how can a man of conscience not get involved?
David Downing manages to tell a well paced, complex story that draws the reader along, quietly building the tension as the increasingly murderous nature of this regime is revealed. Hindsight is twenty-twenty and we know what is going to eventually happen, but this is a masterful look at a repressed and frightened people under the control of a government that ruled by terror, unfortunately these people looked the other way and did not want to become involved until it was suddenly too late.
When he is coerced by a Soviet operative who requests he write articles for Russian newspapers, things take an even more dangerous turn for him. One of his neighbours, a young American journalist has hit upon a potentially explosive story—and one that is likely to get him killed—a reliable witness has given him documents confirming that the Nazis have been killing off disabled and mentally deficient children as part of their plan to purify the race, while keeping the parents in the dark as to the true cause of death. Russell knows better than to get involved, but before long he feels morally obliged to take on the documents. He's also taken on a private tutoring engagement to try to make ends meet—teaching English to two Jewish sisters who's parents want to send them to England. He becomes attached to the family and does all he can to help them, even as the father, a doctor who is no longer allowed to treat patients, is taken into a concentration camp under false charges. All these plot elements are woven together in an expert manner, and I found myself invested in the fates of these characters who are trying to survive in very dangerous times. The impeding sense of doom is very real, all the more so because while we know the historical facts, Downing does a commendable job of convincing us that the outcome is as yet unknown by presenting us with credible stories of individuals doing their best to survive. Captivating.
-Yeats
John Russell is a British freelance journalist living in Berlin. The year is 1939 and war is rapidly approaching. He has been there for fifteen years. His girlfriend is German and his son, from a previous marriage also lives in the
One fine day a Soviet agent corners him and asks him to do a few assignments for them. He agrees and soon uncovers various Nazi atrocities and finds himself in some very dangerous waters, especially when the Brits, Americans and the Gestapo want a piece of him too.
This is a low-key thriller, more of a slow burn than a conflagration. Nicely written, with a likable lead and some fine dry humor: “If the Eskimos had fifty words for snow, the Nazis probably had fifty for dried blood.”
This is the 1st in a series and I am looking forward to the next.
There is lots of character development in this book, and detail of Berlin. I loved that I had visited quite a few of the places in the book - one of the S-Bahn stations where something happens was the nearest one to my hotel last year so I could picture the different exits. Downing spends a lot of time showing the reader what life was like and it makes for a very tense book. When the police are the killers, there's little chance of a wholly happy ending. As usual, the Jews are like frogs in heating up water, but this book is set pretty late in the 30s so life is unbearable already and the lines at the British Embassy to get exit visas are very long. Felix Wiesner used to be a doctor, before he was banned from practising medicine, and as a favour to a friend in the embassy John Russell starts tutoring Ruth and Martha Wiesner in English. They're a really lovely family and they're trying to get the girls out to England.
Highly recommended if you like spy thrillers. My hands were shaking near the end and I don't remember that happening before! I liked this more than the first Phillip Kerr (it was silghtly more believable near the end). I bought the next one, Silesian Station last night.
Russell suspects the Russians might be laying the groundwork for a future non-aggression pact. Then the Nazis approve, having their own motivation. Both sides want him to report whatever he might learn about the other side’s interests. So Russell is walking a tight-rope as the Russians demand more (no surprise), but Russell uses that for his own ends.
Some reviewers have complained there is no action and that the book is just a litany of Nazi evils with too much journal-like writing. I disagree. What Downing has done is to present the horrifying atmosphere and story of a people gradually being subjugated (often quite willingly) by a group of thugs. At what point are we willing to resist and what motives lead us to participate or push back. There’s the story of the mother who discovers her retarded daughter has been pegged for euthanasia by the state as part of their ethnic-cleansing and the father who reports his Down-Syndrome children precisely because he wants the child to disappear. The recurring theme is the failure of ordinary people to resist.
What makes this series (at least this first book that I’ve read in the series) interesting, as with Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther books, is the sense of place, the paranoia and fear of living in a repressive regime, and the difficulties faced by relatively ordinary people during that time of crisis. I’m reading Traitor’s Gate by Michael Ridpath, which has similar themes.
I will be reading the other volumes.
From a fellow journalist, John learns about a horrible crime the Nazis are secretly perpetrating against a segment of the German population. When his colleague is murdered, John must decide how to get the information out of the country; perhaps it will be the turning point that will sway American isolationists into the coming war. At the same time, John tutors two Jewish girls in English as their father is trying to get them visas to England. When first the brother and then the father get into trouble with the Gestapo, John has to decide how best he can help the family without the Nazi's revoking his German residency visa.
What I liked best about this book was the increasing tension as the war looms closer but no one knows exactly when it will start. What I liked least was the portrayal of Effie in this book. To me, she seemed a caricature of a not-so-bright film star used for sex. Fortunately that changes as the series progresses.
This is very much an opening book for a series with the first half of this story more involved with setting the scene and atmosphere of the times and laying out the groundwork for future instalments. Despite the slow build-up it's not a dull read as there was enough going on to keep me enthralled in the action. Very similar in this respect to Alan Furst's series of espionage novels which I've also enjoyed immensely (the ones I've read so far that is). It's a very well written character study set amidst rising tensions with a credible lead who has to make some tough decisions in order to keep his head above water and still be able to remain in the place he wants to be. Definitely a series that I intend to continue with in the future.
Unfortunately for Russell, events and international agendas will over take him as the Soviets, English and Germans all demand his assistance in spying on each other. What makes this a fine and satisfying novel is his successful juggling act using each of his adversaries to manipulate the other and gain his ultimate goals.
This book is much more interested in the mood of the time and place than it is with a linear plot line. Its mostly about the everyday life in a city that is on the brink of war and greater disaster. It is similar in this way to Alan Furst's recent book, Midnight in Europe, which I also greatly enjoyed reading.
Russell is approached an old soviet buddy to write some Nazi friendly stories for a Russian newspaper and he reluctantly agrees but quickly finds there are more strings attached. When his american journalist neighbour stumbles onto an explosive story and needs help with a translation Russell accompanies him to the interview and the information they receive could get them killed but if they do nothing could get thousands of children killed. In the midst of all this drama Russell finds himself trying to help a jewish family that he has grown to like and desperately needs his help.
This is a low key and slow paced thriller but one that kept me thinking. I quite enjoyed this novel and was happy to find out it was part of a series. I will be picking up the next book as soon as I can!
If you like thrillers set in Europe the years leading up to the outbreak of WWII.
If you'd like a tantalizing glimpse into a somewhat forgotten - and in many ways,
Zoo Station, the first in David Downing's Zoo series, is a really rather wonderful and absorbing period piece. In essence; a small tale set against a much bigger, darker backdrop. Involving ordinary people doing ordinary things, like just getting on with their lives, during extraordinary circumstances. The 'hero', is John Russell, an English freelance newspaper writer living in Germany in the early months of 1939, obviously just before the outbreak of World War II. Though, as the book further illustrates (and as if you have read anything else about this period, you will know), 'outbreak' is much more accidental-sounding than was actually the case. Through Russell, we see how the Nazi party has infiltrated its way into the minutiae of Germans' everyday life. And not in a pleasant way of course. You don't need to have done, but it certainly would increase you understanding of novels set in this period, if you had read a book like Richard J. Evans' 'The Coming of the Third Reich'.
With hindsight, it might seem a little strange that an Englishman is living in Germany at this time. But he has good reason to be there. His has an ex-wife, a son and a beautiful, actress girlfriend to care for. He becomes involved with the Russians, ostensibly writing articles on typical German daily life, so the Russian people might better understand their prospective allies. But really he's spying. He knows that and thinks that as long as he can keep the Russians where he can see them, he'll be ok. The same with his British allies. As of course, the British also want a piece of the information cake. So Russell in effect becomes something of an unwitting double agent, with no real master but himself and no real loyalty to anyone, apart from to his family. But, being an Englishman more than somewhat integrated into pre-War German society, gives Russell the opportunity to observe, perhaps understand - though without condoning - and maybe react differently to the zeitgeist. Differently to how a typical German person would have. Or would have been able to have done.
I found this a wonderful, engaging and involving read. An Englishman in a strange land, just doing the right thing, without fanfare. Acting heroically when looked back on, but only made heroic by the times. It is sublimely written and plotted, really well put together. You can almost touch the atmosphere of pre-War Berlin (I have no idea what the pre-War Berlin atmosphere was really like, but I can't imagine it being far from what is brought out here). It's the little things, the small incidents that do it. Giving English lessons to Jewish children, taking trains to Poland, trips to London, picking his son up from his ex-wife, all give this story its edge over others you might read. It's not exactly what you'd think of if I said 'a real page-turner', but to someone who appreciates fine writing and acute observation, sometimes with an acerbic edge *takes bow*, it was a book I found very hard to put away. The best part is, there are many more to come after this one.
My only beef, would be with the recommendation on the cover. I'm never normally a great fan of 'a wonderful evocation of *insert long, long ago time period here* -type recommendations. I mean, unless they themselves were the character's age during that very same time, how do they know? It's not just about knowing the facts of what went on, that's often the easy part. It's surely about knowing about what people felt at that time and why. And the 'and why' can only come if you grew up in that period, were there and were affected by those special circumstances. A person born today would, when reaching writing/author age, surely have trouble imagining a time when there was no Internet, for instance. Tell someone that TVs used to be only black and white, only one or two channels and were the size of a Shetland pony - see what kind of look you get back. So someone saying it is 'a wonderful evocation of...', is guessing it is, hoping it is and probably should have inserted 'in my opinion' in there somewhere. Having said all that...this, in my opinion and based on what I have read about the period - and with parents still alive who were alive during that period, IS 'an extraordinary evocation of Nazi Germany on the eve of war...', as CJ Sansom says on the front cover.
If you like an absorbing read, a good tale well told and with more to come. This is for you.
The book reminded me of other stories, which is a bad thing for me. Hermon Wouk's "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" has similar Jewish/German plotting. Max Bryd's "Jackson" and Gore Vidal's "Burr" has the "journalist as lead character" thing. I rather read original stuff. The spoiler on the back cover also bothered me. When a book has no plot/is meandering, I read the flaps and/or back covers. I avoid the summaries when enjoying a book. I learned there was a "cliff hanger ending." The ending was cool and exciting, but I was expecting something, and that took away the impact.
Overall, I liked the book, but will not put it in my "recommended library." This is the only library that has “include in recommendations” checked, which greatly improves book recommendations. Even though this was an enjoyable read, I am not interested in reading another Jewish/German story, or a narrative told by a reporter, or a book where the main character isn't in charge the majority of the time.
Amazon had the whole series as a deal of the day for 99p each. I’d had this one, the first in the series, for a little while so I dipped in to see if the rest were worth buying. I got hooked and spent a fiver!
I bought this one as an amazon
This is about an Anglo American journalist living in Berlin in 1939 where his German ex wife and kid live too. He has a girlfriend too. The book starts on 31 Dec 1938 just as things are darkening. The story is as much commentary on how the war comes and why ordinary people didn’t protest as it is about how John Russell is drawn into working for various intelligence agencies.
The story is paced very well and has that car crash quality about it. You know everything is going to hell but you want to keep on reading to find out how. I hadn’t expected a number of the twists in the story and I did wonder if it was going to end with him in jail, I knew it couldn’t be worse because there were five more books.
This was very enjoyable and I finished it in a few days. It sneaked in ahead of some other books in the reading order, although I’m resisting the next one until I’ve managed a couple of paper books, per my 2015 resolution.
Unfortunately for Russell, events and international agendas will over take him as the Soviets, English and Germans all demand his assistance in spying on each other. What makes this a fine and satisfying novel is his successful juggling act using each of his adversaries to manipulate the other and gain his ultimate goals.
This is an atmospheric novel where the gloom of the Nazi shadow is palpable, but it is not as dense as some of Alan Furst's books, and Downing knows how to ratchet the tension up to sweaty-palm levels.
The first book in a series, I'm eager to pick up the next one.
The book has a strong sense of place. It explores the growing danger for German Jews in 1939, with Russell assisting a Jewish family to whom he’s been giving English lessons. It also explores the dangers faced by other groups targeted by the Nazis – homosexuals and persons with disabilities. Russell is a bit of an antihero. He’s not a moral crusader on a mission to rescue Jews and defeat the Nazis, but he does his part to help those who need it within his circle of friends and acquaintances.