The Good German [Mass Market Paperback]

Joseph Kanon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

The bestselling author of Los Alamos and Alibi returns to 1945. Hitler has been defeated, and Berlin is divided into zones of occupation. Jake Geismar, an American correspondent who spent time in the city before the war, has returned to write about the Allied triumph while pursuing a more personal quest: his search for Lena, the married woman he left behind. When an American soldier's body is found in the Russian zone during the Potsdam Conference, Jake stumbles on the lead to a murder mystery. The Good German is a story of espionage and love, an extraordinary re-creation of a city devastated by war, and a thriller that asks the most profound ethical questions in its exploration of the nature of justice, and what we mean by good and evil in times of peace and of war.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Joesph Kanon…has woven his plot seamlessly into the historical background. As the hunt for the missing scientist gathers speed, the moral and emotional dimensions of the story become more complex. The mystery takes on the weight of the deepest questions of right and wrong as the novel's action moves through a ravaged Berlin so exactly depicted that one feels Kanon must have traveled in time to witness this landscape himself…In its articulation of a personal experience of the war and its aftermath, and in the plain power of its prose, The Good German rivals Irwin Shaw's novel The Young Lions, its history imaginatively accessible, its plot historically inevitable. A novel that brings to life the ambiguities at the heart of our country's moral legacy. Provocative, fully realized fiction that explores, as only fiction can, the reality of history as it is lived by individual men and women." -The New York Times
 
"Kanon is the heir apparent to Graham Greene and early-and mid-passage le Carre, for he writes of moral quandaries that are real and not created to drive a plot."--Robin W. Winks, The Boston Globe

From the Back Cover

The bestselling author of Los Alamos and Alibi returns to 1945. Hitler has been defeated, and Berlin is divided into zones of occupation. Jake Geismar, an American correspondent who spent time in the city before the war, has returned to write about the Allied triumph while pursuing a more personal quest: his search for Lena, the married woman he left behind. When an American soldier's body is found in the Russian zone during the Potsdam Conference, Jake stumbles on the lead to a murder mystery. The Good German is a story of espionage and love, an extraordinary re-creation of a city devastated by war, and a thriller that asks the most profound ethical questions in its exploration of the nature of justice, and what we mean by good and evil in times of peace and of war.
 
"[Joseph Kanon] is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell: provocative, fully realized fiction that explores, as only fiction can, the reality of history as it is lived by individual men and women."
--The New York Times Book Review
 
"The kind of book that reads so easily that it's almost impossible to put down once you've started it."
--The Baltimore Sun

"Kanon is as ambitious a novelist as he is a gifted one."
--The Washington Post
 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; 1st edition (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312942109
• ISBN-13: 978-0312942106
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fast read that I couldn't put down..., January 9, 2007

By 

Kara Stutzman (Shelby Township, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Good German (Mass Market Paperback)

First I must tell you that I don't typically read books like this one, but I love it! It is fast-paced, based in historical fact, suspenseful, and romantic. The imagery really takes you back to 1945 Berlin as it struggled to find its way, despite the ravages of war. You can empathize with the soldiers (both Russian and from the Allied Powers), and the German citizens as they dealt with death, distruction, poverty, guilt, and violence. In every chapter there is something to keep you reading and wanting to know more. I highly recommend this book.

Since reading it, I have passed it on to two other people who have loved it as much as I did.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A 300 page screenplay, January 2, 2007

By 

Mezzanine (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good German (Mass Market Paperback)

Kanon has no pretensions to be a literary genius. He tells a good story, though, and this tale of mysterious-goings-on in post-war Berlin is educative and fast-moving, even if the ending is a little convenient and too delayed (perhaps the book should be shorter). It is written in that personal present-tense screen-play style which is not everyone's cup of tea. Still, the film is out there (a Clooney production) and the book is worth a read if you liked the film and probably vice-versa.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Terrific, meaty reading, April 30, 2008

By 

Deb Oestreicher (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good German (Mass Market Paperback)

I loved this book. It's by no means a great work of literature, but it delivers a compelling story, intriguing characters, and ponder-worthy moral questions. Maybe a little too conspicuously moralizing, but after all, the book's setting (Berlin in the aftermath of Germany's loss to the Allies in WWII) presents an array of moral conundrums. Must be hard for a period writer to resist.

Surprisingly, there are also interesting parallels to be drawn between postwar Berlin and postwar Baghdad... I guess the issues associated with occupation are largely universal.

This was a book I never wanted to put down, though I was frequently obliged to. Last night, though, I read the last third straight through.

A great pleasure.