The Good German [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Joseph Kanon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

With World War II finally ending, Jake Geismar, former Berlin correspondent for CBS, has wangled one of the coveted press slots for the Potsdam Conference. His assignment: a series of articles on the Allied occupation. His personal agenda: to find Lena, the German mistress he left behind at the outbreak of the war.

When Jake stumbles on a murder -- an American soldier washes up on the conference grounds -- he thinks he has found the key that will unlock his Berlin story. What Jake finds instead is a larger story of corruption and intrigue reaching deep into the heart of the occupation. Berlin in July 1945 is like nowhere else -- a tragedy, and a feverish party after the end of the world.

As Jake searches the ruins for Lena, he discovers that years of war have led to unimaginable displacement and degradation. As he hunts for the soldier's killer, he learns that Berlin has become a city of secrets, a lunar landscape that seethes with social and political tension. When the two searches become entangled, Jake comes to understand that the American Military Government is already fighting a new enemy in the east, busily identifying the "good Germans" who can help win the next war. And hanging over everything is the larger crime, a crime so huge that it seems -- the worst irony -- beyond punishment.

At once a murder mystery, a moving love story, and a riveting portrait of a unique time and place, The Good German is a historical thriller of the first rank.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This compelling thriller is both a touching love story and a masterful portrayal of the struggle for geopolitical control of postwar Germany. Network correspondent Jake Geismar, who covered Berlin before the war, has returned to the devastated city, ostensibly to cover the Potsdam Conference but actually to find the woman he loves. Miraculously, Lena Brandt, Jake's wartime mistress, has survived. However, her mathematician husband is missing, and both the American and Russian intelligence services are hunting him. When the bullet-ridden body of an American soldier washes up on the shores of Potsdam in front of Jake's eyes just as Truman, Churchill, and Stalin convene the first postwar conference, Jake is plunged into a maelstrom of intrigue, corruption, and betrayal.

A brilliantly evoked portrait of a unique moment in history (the end of one war and the beginning of another), The Good German amply fulfills the promise shown by Joseph Kanon in his two earlier novels, Los Alamos and The Prodigal Spy. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Again taking one of the 20th century's most momentous periods as a backdrop, Kanon recreates Berlin in the months following WWII in this lavishly atmospheric thriller overburdened with political and romantic intrigue. Though driven by strong characters and rich historical detail, the book ultimately falters under the weight of a ponderous, edgeless plot. At the center of the drama is Jake Geismar, a journalist who arrives in Berlin ostensibly to cover the Potsdam Conference. In reality, he's consumed with finding his prewar lover, Lena, with whom he carried on a torrid affair unbeknownst to her husband. Before he finds her, however, Geismar becomes intrigued by the murder of an American soldier whose body washes ashore near the conference grounds. The military's reluctance to investigate or provide any details of the murder convinces Geismar that this could be his big story. Though he's warned not to meddle, Geismar can't resist the story's draw. His investigation leads him deeply into Berlin's agonizing struggle for survival its black market, its collective guilt and its citizens' feeble attempts to wash themselves clean of wartime atrocities. And, most importantly, Geismar learns of the Allies' frantic attempts to round up Nazi scientists, including Lena's husband, Emil, whose expertise with missiles made Germany such a fierce enemy. Kanon (Los Alamos; The Prodigal Spy) is at his strongest when giving voice to the hard choices and moral dilemmas of the times, yet he labors at bringing his plot to a close and blurs its core in the process. While his descriptive skills have never been sharper the writing is uniformly elegant Kanon's third thriller since leaving his job as a publising executive digs in when it should be attacking.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; Abridged edition (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743509013
• ISBN-13: 978-0743509015
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,282,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joseph Kanon is the author of four other novels, Los Alamos, The Good German, The Prodigal Spy and Alibi. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was a book publishing executive. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Good Novel, November 26, 2001

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Good German: A Novel (Hardcover)

Joseph Kanon's The Good German is a well done, muliti-genred (if that's a word) piece which I found quite interesting. I don't normally read spy thrillers, but the New York Times' review was so glowing, I couldn't resist. I wasn't disappointed. The Good German is part spy thriller, part love story, part historical fiction. It is the story of Jack Geismar, a reporter, returning to post-WWII Berlin in search of the woman he loved before the war. He finds much more than that. An American soldier is murdered in the Russian controlled section of Berlin. Something strikes Jack as simply not right in the story and he tries to get solve the riddle of the murder. Kanon's exploration of Berlin focuses very well on the nuances and grey areas in war, and in particular WWII in Germany. There really aren't many "good" Germans in this novel, just people who were trying to survuve any way they could. Kanon is superb at bringing to light how the presence of the Nazi's clouded good and bad, so that good people did horrible things for seemingly "good" reasons. Or were these good people, were they good reasons? Kanon gives us no clear answer. The Good German is satisfyingly thought provoking in that respect. My few quibbles with the novel are the number of amazing coincidences (which may be standard in the spy thriller, I don't know) and at times the pacing gets a little bogged down. Other than that, The Good German is an enjoyable, well done novel.

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a sophisticated thriller, October 18, 2001

By 

M. H. Bayliss "book queen" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Good German: A Novel (Hardcover)

I read this book in two sittings and only because I'm too old to stay up ALL night and still be productive the next day. That is to say, this is one exciting read -- I even blocked out my fear of flying as I zoned in on the absorbing story during my recent flight. I enjoyed Los Alamos, but I'm happy to say that Kanon has continued to develop as a writer -- this book is by far his best yet. Kanon does a masterful job portraying post-war Berlin around the time of the Potsdam conference and all the intrigue, scientist-chasing and frenetic behavior during the last days of the Nazi regime. I don't know if Kanon meant to tip his hat to Hemingway's Jake Barnes, but I found his Jake to be an extremely well drawn portrait of our hero-journalist. The pacing is excellent, the dialogue credible and the plot absolutely mind bending. In terms of genre, I'd put this between Le Carre, Folliet, Clancy combining the best elements. Ultimately, Kanon outdoes them all for just plain good writing. My head is still spinning from the labyrintine plot -- read this one with a friend so you can compare notes. If I could even find a small quibble, I'd say the fortune telling scene was a bit over the top and perhaps Jake's original motivation to pursue a murder mystery once he found Lena, but I was very willing to suspend any disbelief. The Good German succeeds on every level (also a very touching love story) and is already one of my very favorites from this year. Superb reading from one of the best writers out there -- don't miss it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Using history, not abusing it, August 12, 2006

By 

Nate Wright (Fort Collins, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good German (Paperback)

As others have said, The Good German is a blend of historical fiction, a spy-thriller and romance. When I began reading it, I worried that one of these elements would simply be used as a ploy to interest us in an otherwise unremarkable novel. It would be easy to cloak a run-of-the-mill love story or spy-thriller in such a dramatic historical setting. Kanon, however, never abuses this history. In fact, the moral dilemmas of WWII are at the center of this book, examined both in the broad context of the broken environment as well as the specific context of the character's relationships.

Kanon refuses to provide simple answers to the atrocities of WWII. While the twists and turns of the plot had me turning the pages, threaded throughout is the question, "How could the Germans do it?" Kanon's exploration of this question, placed within such a vivid recreation of post-war Berlin, led me to set the book down on numerous occasions, lost sometimes in thought and sometimes in despair.

The romance felt a little more forced than other scenes, sometimes being a little boring or even annoying. Kanon is tracing an important story with the romance, illustrating the distance we must go to understand the lives of Germans under the Nazis, but in the telling it fell flat. He certainly has moments, but often it seems the couple is just tracing the same ground with seemingly no development.

But this is a minor gripe in what is a heavy novel. Kanon doesn't back away from the gritty details or the inch-by-inch compromises humans make with evil, and he doesn't leave the reader to point fingers either. In wrapping such unrelenting dilemmas in such weighted circumstances, Kanon has succeeded in writing a good story- an important story.