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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read it, 21 Oct 2005
I have just finished this book.This is definitely Henry Porter's best book yet. The plot grips and works brilliantly within its historical setting which in itself is fascinating and so well told that the sudden collapse of the pervasive power of the Stasi becomes a character in itself. It is so much more than the conventional spy thriller - it is a page turner but the characters are properly fleshed out and the love story that develops alongside the action is totally believable. it is a big book in every way.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Henry Porter and the Fall of the German Democratic Republic, 31 Aug 2006
"Brandenburg" is Henry Porter's fourth novel and won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller in 2005. The book is set in East Germany's last few months, leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The book's hero is Rudi Rosenharte, an academic and former (unwilling) Stasi operative. He has (as the book opens) been brought out of retirement by the Stasi - again, against his wishes - for an operation. However, as his brother and his brother's family have been imprisoned pending his co-operation, he doesn't really have much of a choice. Konrad, Rudi's twin brother, is a film-maker and a known dissident; he has been in prison before, and Rudi fears too long a stretch might kill him. The brothers haven't had the easiest of live. They were born in 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II to high-ranking Nazis. While this would be something of a stigma in most countries, the burden seems to be that much greater in communist East Germany. Their father saw action in Russia and in defence of Berlin. When their parents died towards the end of the war, the brothers were adopted and raised by their housekeeper. However, while neither brother is particularly with communism, they certainly haven't adopted their parents' beliefs.
Although most of the action takes place in East Germany, the book opens in Trieste - where Rudi has been sent to meet Annalise Schering. The only problem is that Annalise is dead, having committed suicide in Brussels some fifteen years previously. Rudi was not only her contact at this time - she was supplying the Stasi with classified information - but he was also her lover. However, after her suicide, he was placed in a rather difficult situation and didn't inform his superiors of her death. Now, as far as the Stasi are concerned, she is alive and wants to make contact again : the assumption is she want to resume passing information to the GDR. This `new' Annalise is insisting that Rudi is the only person she's willing to make contact with. However, in reality, the operation has been set up by Robert Harland and Alan Griswald - representatives of the British and American intelligence agencies. They are particularly interested in alleged links between the Stasi and Abu Jamal, a Syrian terrorist. Rudi, the only person who can apparently obtain this information, is what they plan to use in order to obtain it.
This is a very enjoyable book - it's very tense throughout, with a genuine air of suspicion, verging at times on paranoia. It also appears to have been meticulously researched - the author's note and the acknowledgements at the end of the book make for very interesting reading. However, don't read them until you've finished reading the story itself - it'll give away a couple of twists and surprises if you do ! Highly recommended.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece, 21 Jun 2005
This thriller is set with the back drop of pre-unification East Germany, and it's poverty, paranoia, anger and misery. The central character is Dr Rudi Rosenharte, a former spy who's now an art historian. By imprisoning his brother, the Stasi coerce Rudi to return to spying in order to obtain technological secrets from his former lover, once a mole from the West.The rest of the novel is a cat & mouse chase - is it really Annalise? Who is she working for? And will Rudi cross sides to work with the MI6 & CIA to deceive the Stasi? And if it all wasn't exciting enough, the West recruit him to do a job for them with Ulrike, an activist who they believe will lead them to a Middle Eastern terrorist. And more in line with the amazing feats of another certain Mr Potter, the author manages to even get the KGB involved through Vladimir Putin. It brings an amazing hotch potch of different intelligence agencies with Rudi serving all for his own benefit; the intelligence and expertise with which Potter does this is truly a work of art in itself. If you tire of novels more concerned with conspiracy theories and Middle Eastern terrorism, this book is for you. It takes you back to the old Iron Curtain against Western Bloc novels. You get a real feel for the paranoia which plagued the Eastern Bloc; I challenge anyone to find any Spy novel as well written since John Le Carre. Potter maintains a plot so masterfully with such convoluted characters, this novel is a masterpiece. You will not be disappointed. His best work yet!
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