Then We Take Berlin (Joe Wilderness Series) - Softcover

Lawton, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1611855659 ISBN 13: 9781611855654

Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 2014

Synopsis

A gripping, meticulously researched and richly detailed historical thriller moving from London during the Blitz, to divided post-war Berlin. John Holderness, known to most as 'Wilderness', comes of age during World War II in Stepney, breaking in to houses with his grandfather. After the war, Wilderness is recruited as MI5's resident 'cat burglar' and finds himself in Berlin, involved with schemes in the booming black market that put both him and his relationships in danger. In 1963 it is a most unusual and lucrative request that persuades Wilderness to return - to smuggle someone under the Berlin Wall and out of East Germany. But this final scheme may prove to be one challenge too far...

About this title

About the Author:

John Lawton worked for Channel 4 for many years, and, among many others, produced Harold Pinter's 'O Superman', the least-watched most-argued-over programme of the 90s. He has written seven novels in his Troy series, two Joe Wilderness novels, the standalone Sweet Sunday, a couple of short stories and the occasional essay. He writes very slowly and almost entirely on the hoof in the USA or Italy, but professes to be a resident of a tiny village in the Derbyshire Peak District. He admires the work of Barbara Gowdy, TC Boyle, Oliver Bleeck, Franz Schubert and Clara Schumann - and is passionate about the playing of Maria Joao Pires. He has no known hobbies, belongs to no organisations and hates being photographed.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Lawton’s superb A Lily of the Field (2010) moved from the 1930s through the immediate postwar era, mainly in London. Here he focuses again on that richly atmospheric wake-of-the-war period, both in London and in Berlin. Joe Wilderness, an East End cat burglar who learned his trade from his grandfather, is drafted into the RAF in 1946 and then quickly taken under the wing of intelligence officer Lieutenant Colonel Burne-Jones, who sees Joe’s special talents as extremely handy in the coming Cold War. That’s fine with Joe, but, meanwhile, Berlin appears to him as the ultimate candy store—a black marketeer’s wet dream—and he sets out with another ­Englishman, an American officer, and a major in the Russian NKVD, to make an illicit fortune from the rubble of the once-grand German city. Their reach exceeds their grasp, of course, and after the scam comes crashing down, Joe is rescued by Burne-Jones but not before losing the love of his life, a German girl, Nell, whose weary idealism stands in sharp opposition to Joe’s cheerful larceny. Bump forward 15 years: Joe is reunited with the American officer, who has another scheme: this time the plan involves smuggling people, not dry goods. Joe goes along, hoping mainly to reconnect with Nell, now a West German diplomat helping to plan President Kennedy’s Berlin visit. Lawton captures both the immediate postwar and midcentury landscapes perfectly, stirring elements of Graham Greene, John le Carré, and the great Ross Thomas’ too-little-known McCorkle and Padillo novels into a superbly well-built Cold War cocktail—bracing, deliriously delicious, but carrying the slightly bitter aftertaste of dreams gone bad. --Bill Ott

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1611855659
• ISBN 13: 9781611855654
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432