This spy novel written in 2004 was set in East Germany, based on the days leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th November 1989.
This novel is about Dr. Rudi Rosenharte, a former agent of the Stasi (the German Ministry for State Security) who is set up by the British intelligence to go up against the West. In the process, Konrad, the brother of Dr. Rosenharte is arrested by the Stasi for making private films which they did not approve of. Dr. Rosenharte has to find a way to free his brother from prison. During a visit with his brother, the doctor noticed that he needed medical and dental care. His brother’s teeth were rotten and he was sick because of the torture and the diet that he was receiving. Later on in the story, he (Dr. Rosenharte) learns from a Russian named Vladimir, that his brother has died from a heart attack. He was so sad that he started to drink and he soon found out that the woman he loved had used him. He told the man who killed his brother that seeing him trapped, was good enough revenge for him. At the end of the novel, Dr. Rosenharte meets his biological mother, Urszula Kusimack and they walk freely across the Glienicke Bridge after the Berlin Wall has fallen, securing the release of millions of Germans who were trapped by the Wall.
What I liked about the novel is that it tells us the history of the Berlin Wall and although it is a spy thriller, it shows us what lengths this person will go to in order to free his brother and make sure that his sister-in-law and her children are reunited and freed from the Stasi who had imprisoned her. I also liked the storyline which kept me very interested because it showed the way using your imagination to make a story work. The different characters that I encountered in the story were very interesting because in a novel, the characters and the plot should keep the readers engrossed till the end of the novel.
What I didn’t like about the novel was the fact that many people died while being trapped by the Berlin Wall by either imprisonment or being executed by the Stasi because I feel that it is very cruel and inhumane for a person to take another person’s life. Many people can relate to this story because in South Africa, we had our Berlin Wall, namely Apartheid, where people were struggling to survive behind the invisible wall which was built by the South African government of that time, in order to separate the black and white people from one another as it was illegal then for the two races to freely associate with each other.
I think that anyone who loves spy novels, will like this one especially because of the espionage and the suspense which as I said before will keep one interested for hours. This book will make a great gift.
No comments:
Post a Comment