I visited East Berlin in 1989 a few months before the fall of the wall and the descriptions of the atmosphere (including smells!)and the run-down buildings echoed my memories.

To use a cliche - I found this hard to put down. Henry Porter has done a great job of combining the book's characters with the real events of 1989, from the street protests of October 1989 to the hopelessness of the dark dank cells of the Stasi prisons.

If you are looking for a good spy story combined with the epic events in East Germany of 1989 then this is your book.
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A spy novel set mainly in 1989 East Germany. As the GDR collapses, the Stasi desperately works to destroy its enemies. The main character, Rudi Rosenharte, is stuck between the Stasi, the KGB and MI6 trying to get his brother freed. The brother was captured by the Stasi in order to use him as a way to get Rudi to do what they want.

The best part about this book is the window into the collapse of the GDR. It is amazing that up until the very end, the people responsible for that reprehensible government were kidnapping and torturing their opponents. Otherwise, the book could get a little too complicated to follow at times. ( )

Rather callow and unnecessarily complicated - the poor man's le Carre on a bad day. ( )

East Germany, the dying days of the Honecker regime. Rudi Rosenharte is an art critic and ex-Stasi officer. No fan of the regime, he is nevertheless pressed back into service to make contact with one of his former agents. To make sure he complies, the Stasi have arrested his twin brother and detained the brother's wife and family. The brother's health and spirit have already been broken during a previous period of imprisonment, so all Rudi wants to do is to get him and his family out of East Germany. In pursuit of this aim, he draws in four different intelligence services, in a satisfyingly twisting adventure.

The thing that lifts this above the formulaic is its depiction of the tail end of the East German regime - in particular the very real brutality and terror of the survelliance state (Porter currently campaigns against increased surveillance and other encroachments of civil liberties in the name of counter-terrorism), and the delight and incredulity at the sudden crumbling of the system - rapidly replaced by some tough questions when the East Germans stream across into West Berlin and see the incredible plenty there. ( )

Bon roman d'espionnage mais qui traîne un peu en longueur...je n'ai pas pu le terminer, ce qui veut tout dire... ( )