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Dec 1, 20221 min read
1033. Audrey Magee - The Undertaking
This is her first book, and very different from The Colony (no.1019). Set in 1940’s Germany, the central figures are a soldier on the...
May 9, 20221 min read
975. Anne Perry - A Truth To Lie For
This was pretty low grade, despite being described as ‘reminiscent of Graham Greene’. I don’t think so. A quasi-espionage thriller set...
Dec 11, 20211 min read
921. Colm Tóibín - The Magician
Never read any by this guy before, but from the bibliography, at the start, I should; he sounds a bit like Antony Burgess, mixing fiction...
Oct 22, 20211 min read
910. David Palin - The Half-Torn Page
A gothic novel set in17th century Germany involving witches and daemonic possession, so not entirely my cup of tea. I found it pretty...
Jan 14, 20201 min read
744. Mick Herron - The List
The prequel, I think to 743, and I have read this one before. Structurally quite similar- another elderly German ex MI5 agent dies, a...
Jan 13, 20201 min read
743. Mick Herron - The Drop
Interesting to read this just after Le Carre, as this treads the same territory 30(?) years later and features ancient, superannuated...
Feb 2, 20191 min read
654. Erskine Childers - The Riddle Of The Sands
The 3rd paper book bought with Daniel’s Xmas Waterstone’s voucher. I has no idea that Childers’ was on IRA man, executed by firing squad...
Nov 30, 20161 min read
449. John Le Carré - Call For The Dead
I think this may be his first novel (see 447); I have read it before but always enjoy it. The plot is as described above, although with...
Jun 18, 20141 min read
222. Thomas Mann - BuddenBrooks
If I have read Thomas Mann before, it was 'Death in Venice' 40 years ago. This, especially the first half, was a wonderfully stately...
Jun 12, 20141 min read
219. Robert Musil - The Confessions Of Young Torless
Couldn’t get ‘The Man Without Qualities’ on a Kindle so this as a substitute. Typical German early 20th century expressionist (is this...
Mar 29, 20141 min read
192. Olivia Manning - The Great Fortune
Not entirely sure whether volume one of 'The Balkan Trilogy' counts as a book, but volume two (no.193 below) certainly re-introduces the...
Sep 25, 20131 min read
147. Philip Kerr - A Man Without Breath
I have read a trilogy, I think called 'Berlin Noir' before, without really enjoying it. l am not sure that I enjoyed this a lot either-...
Jun 12, 20131 min read
115. David Lodge - Out Of The Shelter
Aeroplane reading en route for Spain. Haven't read a David Lodge for years. Coming of age novel, apparently quite autobiographical, set...
Apr 10, 20131 min read
97. Heinrich Boll - The Lost Honour Of Katharina Blum
Very short, maybe a bit of a cheat. Had read it before, maybe 30+ years ago. Enigmatic, about a woman in Germany in the 1970's whose life...
Apr 19, 20121 min read
4. John Le Carré - A Small Town In Germany
Read this before, probably about 30 years ago! Set in Bonn in the late '60s, the central figure (although he never appears) is a man who...