News from Berlin
On sale
2nd January 2014
Price: £12
June 1941. Dutch diplomat Oscar Verschuur has been posted to neutral Switzerland. His family is spread across Europe. His wife Kate works as a nurse in London and their daughter Emma is living in Berlin with her husband Carl, a ‘good’ German who works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Briefly reunited with her father in a restaurant in Geneva, Emma drops a bombshell. A date and a codename, and the fate of nations is placed in Verschuur’s hands: June 22, Barbarossa.
What should he do? Warn the world, or put his daughter’s safety first? The Gestapo are watching them both. And with Stalin lulled by his alliance with Hitler, will anyone even listen?
Otto de Kat is fast gaining a reputation as one of Europe’s sharpest and most lucid writers. News from Berlin, a book for all readers, a true page-turner driven by the pulse of a ticking clock, confirms him as a storyteller of subtly extravagant gifts.
Briefly reunited with her father in a restaurant in Geneva, Emma drops a bombshell. A date and a codename, and the fate of nations is placed in Verschuur’s hands: June 22, Barbarossa.
What should he do? Warn the world, or put his daughter’s safety first? The Gestapo are watching them both. And with Stalin lulled by his alliance with Hitler, will anyone even listen?
Otto de Kat is fast gaining a reputation as one of Europe’s sharpest and most lucid writers. News from Berlin, a book for all readers, a true page-turner driven by the pulse of a ticking clock, confirms him as a storyteller of subtly extravagant gifts.
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Reviews
A compelling portrait of love, loss and regret
'A masterclass in how less can be more, packed full of atmosphere, emotion and philosophical debate'
De Kat's ambition of theme is served by astonishing tautness of construction and spareness of language
'[A] brilliant slow burn of a novel'
'A sweeping epic, even though it's only 200 pages long ... de Kat can break your heart in 200 words, never mind 200 pages'