An atmospheric literary thriller set in the Berlin of 1946. Political intrigue, murder and a love story all find their place in this cleverly plotted novel.
Berlin, 1946. During one of the coldest winters on record, Pavel Richter, a decommissioned GI, finds himself at odds with a rogue British Army colonel and a Soviet General when a friend deposits the frozen body of a dead Russian spy in his apartment. So begins the race to take possession of the spy's secret, a race which threatens Pavel's friendship with a street orphan named Anders and his budding love for Sonia, his enigmatic upstairs neighbour. As the action hurtles towards catastrophe, the hunt merges with one for the truth about the novel's protagonist: who exactly is Pavel Richter?
‘A gripping espionage thriller very much in the uncertain, paranoid vein of The Third Man … It keeps you hooked on its mysteries by rationing the truth more severely than its characters’ coffee … an entirely guilt-free treat’ Independent
‘An espionage thriller, complete with double-crosses, torture, prostitution, a monkey and summary executions … There is much to like about this book’ The Times
Author
About Dan Vyleta
Dan Vyleta is the son of Czech refugees who emigrated to Germany in the late 1960s. After growing up in Germany, he left to attend university in the UK where he completed a PhD in History at King's College, Cambridge. His debut novel, Pavel & I, gathered immediate international acclaim and was translated into eight languages. His second novel, The Quiet Twin, was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and his third, The Crooked Maid, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the J.I Segal Award. He lives in Stratford-upon-Avon.
