- Paperback: 414 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber (21 May 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571251668
- ISBN-13: 978-0571251667
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.6 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,332,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Dr Berlin is the third novel, Making Enemies and Secret Kingdom being the previous two, in Francis Bennett's Cold War trilogy. All three are reissued in Faber Finds.
Like the first two Dr Berlin centres around a pivotal moment in the Cold War: the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961. As one reviewer of this book remarked, 'the Iron Curtain had become concrete. '
Dr Berlin is a successful academic at the Moscow Institute of History and leads the privileged life of a Party member. But he is also the secret servant of a corrupt regime, an informer who betrays his friends and colleagues alike. Sickened by his own weakness, weary of his life of deception, he is trapped in a morally empty world where he plays his part in manufacturing the lies that conflict with what he knows is true. On the eve of departure to lecture at Cambridge University, he is asked by a disillusioned faction in the Soviet military to deliver a message to the West in the hope of preventing the conflict expected throughout the world. Can he redeem his life of deception through one courageous act?
'This is another rare piece of subtle and complex storytelling, an excellent continuation in Bennett's Trollope-like chronicling of the Cold War years.' Peter Millar, The Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The inside cover informs us that this is, sadly, the last in a three book series tracing the history of the Cold War in fiction. Shame. Francis Bennett's trilogy began with the superb 'Making Enemies' and continued with 'Secret Kingdom'. Now there is 'Dr Berlin' and it has been well worth the wait. The plotting is as assured and as detailed as the first novel in the series and many of the characters from both previous books appear as their cleverly interwoven stories meet. The scenario for 'Dr Berlin' is the squabble over Berlin in the early 1960's and the constant threat of mass nuclear war. With this backdrop, Mr Bennett weaves a tale of espionage, history, love and betrayal into a splendid mantle of entertainment and education. Education? Well, yes. Mr Bennetts skill throughout these books has been to educate as well as any history book can as to the nature of the time. All three novels have an accurate sense of period and place to them that many so called 'bestseller' writers would do well to imitate. There has been an upsurge recently in the number of espionage books published and this series beats then all, and by some distance. Quite why these novels do not appear at the top of the bestseller lists and command greater review attention is beyond me. Perhaps publishers are unwilling to spend money promoting this kind of quality in favour of some recognised writers tired efforts or some celebrity drivel. Shame again.. 'Dr Berlin' ..deserves better, much, much better. If there is to be any any criticism then one could argue that the ending is a little weak. I got the sense that Mr Bennett had a lot more in store for his characters but was constrained by the fact that this is the final instalment. After all, we were promised a series of books tracing the history of the Cold War; we have had the late 1940's, the 1950's and now the early 1960's, what about the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1970's and 1980's with the fall of the wall and communism itself. There are three more books here I am sure. To anyone who enjoys atmospheric, intense and truly thrilling books, read this series. To Francis Bennett - please write more books, and to publishers - have the courage to invest in more quality fiction like this.
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