Books

One of the finest British writers of his generation, the Booker Prize-winning Ian McEwan published The Innocent in 1990, which must have been a publishers dream time to put out a book set in Berlin. The Innocent follows the arrival of a young British engineer called Leonard who arrives in the city in the 1950s to work on a top secret tunnel the Americans were building into the Soviet sector in order to tap into the communications lines of the Red Army and its political command.

Once there he meets and falls in love with a German woman, who has a lot to teach the 25 year-old British ‘Innocent’. These are the two main storylines and they intersect at different points, such when Leonard’s new girlfriend falls under suspicion of the Americans because her parents live in the Soviet-controlled Pankow, and not least with the climax of the tale which, so as not to spoil it, will be left unexplained.

For me the most powerful aspect of the Innocent is the way McEwan shows how one moment, or a series of tiny, insignificant choices, can result in absolutely horrifying, life-changing conclusions. The development of Leonard from The Innocent of the title into what he becomes by the end is both dramatic and yet subtly done. There is not one particular moment where Leonard changes, rather it is a number of events that lead him to the climatic scene, and even there he is more than a little unlucky. At times you really dislike Leonard, and at others you simply feel sorry for him – here was a man that got out of his depth, and had no experience in how to deal with it.

The Berlin of the novel is divided but not yet separated, and the sense of the era is well done – both in the Cold War tensions of the project Leonard is engaged in, to his almost triumphal glee on arrival, despite his naivete, of being a Brit, and therefore one of the victors, walking through the vanquished city that was still being rebuilt.

Ian McEwan may have gone on to have written better – or at least more acclaimed – books, but if you want an intelligent cold war thriller, a literary spy novel, tense and beautifully written, and you want it about Berlin, then you could do much, much worse than this.

If you are looking for a good bookshop in Berlin, with a fine selection of second hand as well as new books, and a large selection of translated German literature, check out St George’s Bookshop in Prenzlauer Berg. Otherwise, you can find The Innocent by Ian McEwan here on Amazon.co.uk.

(The third book in Paul’s series of Books about Berlin is called simply “Berlin” and is a history of Berlin in the 20th Century by the American Professor, David Clay Large)

Many people who visit us at The Circus are interested in the history of the city, and there are a number of good books out there in English that tell the fascinating, dark and often troubling story of Berlin. One of the best is also a whopper – Berlin by David Clay Large is 700-odd large pages and covers the history of the city from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the re-unification of 1990. In between the story of Berlin comes alive on the pages, from the political manoeuvrings of great powers to the social and cultural changes and their impact on ordinary people.

The book is especially strong on culture and descriptions of the cultural landscapes of the city, from the role of theatre in Nazi Germany to the underground arts movement of the GDR, or  how art was collected and showcased by the Kaiser and how the architects were chosen to re-build Potsdamer Platz in the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Personalities are also to the fore, and not just famous politicians, artists and writers, but also Joseph Schmidt and his pals from the local corner Kneipe. Also worth a special mention is the section on literature in the 1920s, which provides a great guide to the novels and books of that era which played such a great part in developing the myth and the identity of Berlin far beyond the city limits.

Written by someone who manages to present a mountain of research in an accessible and readable way, Berlin is a solid guide to the main events and movements that shaped the 20^th Century not only in Berlin but beyond, with absorbing anecdotes about everyday life in the city to keep you entertained along the way.

If you are looking for a good bookshop in Berlin, with a fine selection of second hand as well as new books, and a large selection of translated German literature, check out St George’s Bookshop in Prenzlauer Berg. Otherwise, you can find Berlin by David Clay Large here on Amazon.co.uk.