So very dull. I read 14 chapters and gave up. And I enjoy spy stories and am interested in Berlin’s history. ( )

Honestly? Dire! ( )

A great coming-of-age/spy/thriller set in Germany at the time the wall came down. Ben Fergusson further explores here the theme of family relationships he did in his second novel The Other Hoffman Sister.

Nothing and no one are what they seem in this novel about 18-year-old Ralf who has just finished high school. He is part of a group of friends, one of whom, Maike, he is having a relationship. Ralf is also attracted to men and when he meets Turkish-born Oz, his life changes. Oz is an informant for the West German Intelligence Agency, BND.

Ralf discovers his psychologist mother is having an affair with one of the men who live in their apartment block. His reaction is vengeful and so when Oz asks him to steal files about an army officer she is seeing, Ralf agrees.

There was something foreboding and troubling about Oz who is taken away for psychological treatment. The tension in Ralf's life steadily increases as does the pressure-cooker atmosphere that culminates in East Germans shaking their communist shackles.

We all know how the German story ended. I thought I knew how this would end and was surprised.

This is one of the best spy novels I have read that realistically portrays life. Fergusson has a deep understanding of Germany which is reflected here.

( )

‘And this might have been my lasting memory of summer 1989. Even that moment I might have forgotten, recalling only my A levels and the Wall if people asked what that year had meant to me. But of course, in the end, 1989 meant neither of those things. It just meant Oz, and espionage – how grand that word sounds now – and I suppose my family and the terrible things we did.’

Covering the tumultuous period of summer-winter of 1989 in West Berlin, Ben Fergusson’s new novel centres on 18-year-old Ralf, his family and friends, and Oz, a part-time informant for the authorities who has been spying on the apartment block where Ralf’s family live. This is mostly a coming of age story, with an espionage subplot that weaves in and out of the events of Ralf and his family, before the book reaches a thrilling twist and a moving conclusion. The novel is narrated in first-person, with an older Ralf looking back on this period to understand what happened. Imagine ‘Deutschland 83’ meets ‘Call Me By Your Name’, with a little bit of ‘Stand By Me’ thrown in for good measure – that’s probably the best way I can describe the whole effect of this novel.

Ralf and his friends have just finished school – Ralf, with an English mother and German father, has been studying at an international school (hence the A-levels). His close-knit group of friends include Maike, Ralf’s erstwhile girlfriend; Stefan, his closest friend; and Petra, who has an on-off relationship with Stefan. Together they have forged tight bonds, but as the summer of 1989 unfolds these bonds start to unravel, as Ralf finds himself involved in a spying mission set for him by Oz, a 22-year old of Turkish origin, whom Ralf meets at a swimming pool but recognises from a car which has been parked outside his building for weeks. Oz is trying to find the identity of ‘Axel’, a Stasi spy that has been blackmailing leading political and military figures and who, Oz thinks, is really Ralf’s neighbour Tobias. Furthermore, Ralf finds himself torn between his love for Maike and a growing attraction to Oz. As the weeks and months go by further secrets are revealed and everything Ralf has taken for granted in his life starts to crumble:
‘I had the uneasy feeling that I was just old enough to see these things shifting for the first time, a snapshot of a much longer cycle, a split second in the inestimable history of my own deep time.’

Of course, in the background, is the fracturing of Communism and the events leading up to November 1989, when the checkpoints in Berlin were opened and the process that ultimately led to the reunification of Germany was begun. Without forcing the parallels down your throat, Fergusson manages to make the events unfolding in Ralf’s life and the wider political issues find their own threads. There are several subtle examples throughout the book of borders or edges, of something on the brink of changing: Ralf is half British and half German; he and his friends stand on the cusp of adulthood; he finds himself torn between his sexuality; and of course the Wall, which stands as a physical embodiment of the change that is to come to everyone in the novel.

I’ll be honest, when I first came to this novel, I was expecting a pretty simple spy story. Instead, what I found was a little gem of a book, with characters who came alive and clearly show a great deal of affection from the author. The various strands of the novel work in harmony, and the story of Ralf and Oz becomes more and more complicated as he – and us – start to question everyone and everything that happens. Who can we trust? Who is telling the truth? As the answers start to come and Ralf’s life explodes, the truth is shocking and the implications are massive. This is a tender, involving, beautifully written novel which draws you in and makes you care. The historical perspective is handled really well, and you truly get a sense of the teenagers in the story and their lives. It feels authentic, and is deeply moving. As I say, this was an unexpected wonder of a book, providing so much more than a simple synopsis can provide. 4.5 stars, which I’m happy to bump up to 5 simply because of the surprise of its effect on the reader. Wonderful. ( )