Excellent

Thoroughly enjoyed this. The research done for this book was amazing. So good that I thought this was perhaps the authors diary, but no. It has a biographical feel thanks to this research, but it is fiction. Written in such a way that it makes you guess what is to come and if you are like me you will get it wrong throughout. Don't expect thrills and spills, it is a lot more gentle than that but I recommend you give it a go!

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Fantastic book great twists

Another really enjoyable book from Ben Fergusson. The twists in the plot were great and kept coming right up u to the end.

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2 people found this helpful

Berlin Years!

What a wonderful evocation of a city at a time of change.But even more the lives of a band of young friends growing up in this place.Ever true to each other, sympathetically ,with amazing understanding,the author Ben Fergusson and his brilliant reader Joe Jamieson drew me ever deeper into their lives.In particular the coming of age and the facing of life's complexities of the main character Ralf and his undying love for Oz, a Berlin born Turk. I shall miss them so much.You will be unable to put this recording in Audible or the book itself down ,if you are anything like me!!

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Loved this book

Really liked the clever story, characters and historic details. Excellent narration. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. Hope you do too.

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3 people found this helpful

I liked it!

A great story, keeps you gripped. Joe Jameson really is the most brilliant reader.

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A coming of age story, a spy novel and a love letter to Berlin

Listening to this book has been a delight in so many ways.... The writing is beautiful without being self consciously literary and is read by Joe Jameson, whose voice and interpretation I loved since hearing his reading of The Charioteer by Mary Renault. The main character, Ralph, follows his journey of self discovery with typical teenage angst, a word so appropriate to the setting of this book, the city of West Berlin, just before the fall of the wall. The city is lovingly described, the smells, sounds and details bringing to life the unfamiliar places and somehow combining with the quirks of the characters to give the book a wonderful sense of place. The spy story within the book is well plotted and the twists and turns are a delight. There are very few things to criticise, some characters are a bit sketchy, the need for the unexpected, as required by the spy novel genre, detracts a bit from the verisimilitude, breaking the spell occasionally, but despite this, I cannot remember the last time I derived so much pleasure from listening to an audiobook. I will rush to buy the author’s other novels and, for the first time in my life, I am drawn to Berlin, feeling compelled to visit. Oh, and this book has the best ending I’ve read, or listened to, for a long time.

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2 people found this helpful

Astonishing—loved it.

This book is breathtakingly plotted AND subtly and convincingly written, which are qualities that don’t usually go together in contemporary fiction in my view. Really totally surprised to find a contemporary novel this good. The lazy comparison is le carre but I also saw shades of Andre aciman and Anthony Powell.

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Interesting story and times spoilt by narration

For once I wish I had read the novel than listening to it as I felt the narration marred an interesting plot set in a facination period of modern history with plenty of twists.Extremely annoying "voice" especially as the 18 year old hero - he didn't sound like one - and his depection of the female characters made my skin crawl!

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Not bad story

This book was ok. Not great but an easy listen. The ending was too neat and fairly obvious. Some of the dialogue stretched credibility (e.g. maturity and self-awareness of teenagers wasn't realistic) but fairly enjoyable overall.

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Totally worth it - no spoilers in review.

I nearly gave up on this book after nothing very much happened in the first 2 or 3 chapters. The awards and juries and judging panels have lied to me again I thought.
Then there was a flicker of interest and I persevered.
By halfway through I was totally hooked.
This became one of those stories where the temptation to move ahead and find out what happened was almost too much to resist. I successfully avoided and the climax on the night of the fall of the Berlin wall was excellent.
The story is clearly a slow burn but catches after a while.
The narration is good and at times the petulance of a group of 18-year-olds coming of age, interspersed with interactions with a wide range of late-80s Berliners is voiced with a great deal of atmosphere. Some of the narrator's voices are disconcerting in how effective their characterisation is.

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4 people found this helpful