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Berlin just after the Second World War was a land of opportunity for hustlers and spies, with the economy in ruins and four occupying powers jostling for position. John Lawton vividly evokes the times with this tale of a Cockney burglar whose criminal career is interrupted when he is drafted into the RAF near the end of the war. Smart and resourceful but unsuited to military discipline, he is rescued from the guardhouse by a talent-spotting colonel and prepped for a career in espionage. Late-for
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A Troy book without Troy. But, yes, it deliberately uses the Leonard Cohen title, so there's New York first, then a lot of Berlin.
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Wilderness (Holderness) is a great protagonist -- orphaned kid from the East End who becomes a thief. A gift for languages gets him into the spy business, but he never stops stealing. Set in Berlin, late 40s through 1963. Black market four-sector Berlin morphs into Cold War Berlin. A key character witnesses Bergen-Belsen in '45 as a child. Engaging, well written historical fiction.
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