anti-war literature at its best, 25 Jun 2008
Great novel. The journey from childhood to manhood is supposed to be full of joy and mystery, but this novel shows, doesn't tell, of what that journey is like during a world war. This book was banned by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933. If you read this novel, you'll understand why it was banned in Nazi Germany.

Read this before you die!, 08 Jun 2008
I bought an original 1929 copy on ebay and this is one hell of a book. If anyone has any idea that war is glorious you will be jarred severely by the this story. The true horror of the ordinary man fighting to keep alive is documented with crystal clear vision.

I initially found the style of writing a little off putting, but I have to say I rarely get sucked into a story as thoroughly as this one, I even have had nightmares about it's content!

In a similar way that Das Boot shared the human side of the 'enemy', AQOTWF does the same.....at the end of everything we are all very similar, whether English, French or German. We all worry and care about our loved ones.


AQOTWF was one of the books the Nazi's burnt in the 30's. That is sufficient reason to read it.

I can't say you will enjoy it, but I'm sure it will give you a valuable insight into the hellish lives the brave soldiers of all nations who suffered so much. God rest their souls.

If you are buying this book get a hold of Birdsong, it follows a similar thread.

Fantastic, 06 Mar 2008
I am one of these people who always wanted to read a great classic and enjoy it.

Unfortunately what usually happens is that I never finish a book of this type because it is too much like hard work and I go back to something less challenging.

Not so with this book. It grabbed me immediately and I lapped up every page. The author succeeded in bringing across difficult emotional subjects in an effortless way and I would thoroughly recommend it to everyone.

Exposes well the despair and hopelessness of trench warfare, 02 Dec 2007
Very tragic and horrific account of the lives of a group of German ex-classmate soldiers in the trenches of WWI. The novel brings across well the hopelessness and futility of it all, especially at the very end of the story. Most of the time the story could be about the experiences of any group of WWI soldiers from any country as there are relatively few specifically German reference points apart from the characters' names. The writing is in the present tense, which I usually find annoying and did so to some extent here, but it does bring across the drama of the action very vividly. The language is very simple and the book was a quick read despite its nearly 300 pages.

The last enemy ..., 13 Nov 2006
Erich Marie Remarque was a truly great writer of his generation. Imagine how fresh this novel was when first published - imagine reading it in the original German language. Notwithstanding the many decades that have passed it remains a masterpiece. I first read 'All Quiet' in the 1960's.
I promise you, it changed my life forever. Few books in my nearly six decades of reading have done that.

In August 1992, W.G. Sebald set off on a walking tour of Suffolk, one of England's least populated and most striking counties. A long project--presumably The Emigrants, his great anatomy of exile, loss and identity--had left him spent. Initially his tour was a carefree one. Soon, however, Sebald was to happen upon "traces of destruction, reaching far back into the past", in a series of encounters so intense that a year later he found himself in a state of collapse in a Norwich hospital.

The Rings of Saturn is his record of these travels, a phantasmagoria of fragments and memories, fraught with dizzying knowledge and desperation and shadowed by mortality. As in The Emigrants, past and present intermingle: the living come to seem like supernatural apparitions while the dead are vividly present. Exemplary sufferers such as Joseph Conrad and Roger Casement people the author's solitude along with various eccentrics and even an occasional friend. Indeed, one of the most moving chapters concerns his fellow German exile--the writer Mi chael Hamburger.

"How is it that one perceives oneself in another human being or, if not oneself, then one's own precursor?" Sebald asks. "The fact that I first passed through British customs 33 years after Michael, that I am now thinking of giving up teaching as he did, that I am bent over my writing in Norfolk and he in Suffolk, that we both are distrustful of our work and both suffer from an allergy to alcohol--none of these things are particularly strange. But why it was that on my first visit to Michael's house I instantly felt as if I lived or had once lived there, in every respect precisely as he does, I cannot explain. All I know is that I stood spellbound in his high-ceilinged studio room with its north-facing windows in front of the heavy mahogany bureau at which Michael said he no longer worked because the room was so cold, even in midsummer ..."

Sebald seems most struck by those who lived or live quietly in adversity, "the shadow of annihilation" always hanging over them. The appropriately surnamed George Wyndham Le Strange, for example, remained on his vast property in increasing isolation, his life turning into a series of colourful anecdotes. He was "reputed to have been surrounded, in later years, by all manner of feathered creatures: by guinea fowl, pheasants, pigeons and quail, and various kinds of garden and song birds, strutting about him on the floor or flying around in the air. Some said that one summer Le Strange dug a cave in his garden and sat in it day and night like St. Jerome in the desert."

In Sebald's eyes, even the everyday comes to seem extraterrestrial--a vision intensified in Michael Hulse's beautiful rendition. His complex, allusive sentences are encased in several-pages-long paragraphs-- style and subject making for painful, exquisite reading. Though most often hypersensitive to human (and animal) suffering and making few concessions to obligatory cheeriness, Sebald is not without humour. At one point, paralysed by the presence of the past, he admits: "I bought a carton of chips at McDonald's, where I felt like a criminal wanted worldwide as I stood at the brightly lit counter, and ate them as I walked back to my hotel." The Rings of Saturn is a challenging nocturne and the second of Sebald's four books to appear in English. - -Kerry Fried

anti-war literature at its best, 25 Jun 2008
Great novel. The journey from childhood to manhood is supposed to be full of joy and mystery, but this novel shows, doesn't tell, of what that journey is like during a world war. This book was banned by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933. If you read this novel, you'll understand why it was banned in Nazi Germany.

Read this before you die!, 08 Jun 2008
I bought an original 1929 copy on ebay and this is one hell of a book. If anyone has any idea that war is glorious you will be jarred severely by the this story. The true horror of the ordinary man fighting to keep alive is documented with crystal clear vision.

I initially found the style of writing a little off putting, but I have to say I rarely get sucked into a story as thoroughly as this one, I even have had nightmares about it's content!

In a similar way that Das Boot shared the human side of the 'enemy', AQOTWF does the same.....at the end of everything we are all very similar, whether English, French or German. We all worry and care about our loved ones.


AQOTWF was one of the books the Nazi's burnt in the 30's. That is sufficient reason to read it.

I can't say you will enjoy it, but I'm sure it will give you a valuable insight into the hellish lives the brave soldiers of all nations who suffered so much. God rest their souls.

If you are buying this book get a hold of Birdsong, it follows a similar thread.

Fantastic, 06 Mar 2008
I am one of these people who always wanted to read a great classic and enjoy it.

Unfortunately what usually happens is that I never finish a book of this type because it is too much like hard work and I go back to something less challenging.

Not so with this book. It grabbed me immediately and I lapped up every page. The author succeeded in bringing across difficult emotional subjects in an effortless way and I would thoroughly recommend it to everyone.

Exposes well the despair and hopelessness of trench warfare, 02 Dec 2007
Very tragic and horrific account of the lives of a group of German ex-classmate soldiers in the trenches of WWI. The novel brings across well the hopelessness and futility of it all, especially at the very end of the story. Most of the time the story could be about the experiences of any group of WWI soldiers from any country as there are relatively few specifically German reference points apart from the characters' names. The writing is in the present tense, which I usually find annoying and did so to some extent here, but it does bring across the drama of the action very vividly. The language is very simple and the book was a quick read despite its nearly 300 pages.

The last enemy ..., 13 Nov 2006
Erich Marie Remarque was a truly great writer of his generation. Imagine how fresh this novel was when first published - imagine reading it in the original German language. Notwithstanding the many decades that have passed it remains a masterpiece. I first read 'All Quiet' in the 1960's.
I promise you, it changed my life forever. Few books in my nearly six decades of reading have done that.

Melancholy meanderings, 28 May 2008
I was given this book in German by a friend who I think had over-estimated my proficiency in that language. I made several failed attempts to penetrate the first chapter before I gave up and ordered "the Rings of Saturn" in English from amazon. I'm glad I did.

I still found the first chapter difficult but after a while, I switched into Sebald's train of thought and was spellbound for the rest of the book. Wandering around the largely desolate, decaying and deserted Suffolk coastline becomes a metaphor for a stream of consciousness, a meandering through the mind. Sights and places spark off connections to stories about a number of historical persons and events, which all become inter-connected in the literary web that is "The Rings of Saturn".

There are recurring themes here of the nature of time, transience and permanence, death and birth. In spite of the philosophical and learned nature of the writing, this book is never dry or dull. In reading it, I learned a lot, I thought a lot and I felt a lot. I can recommend this to anyone who yearns for writing and thought of quality away from the mainstream.

Walk into a magical Journey, 10 Jan 2004
This is a wonderful book, ostensibly a chronical of a walk along the suffolk coast from Lowestoft to Orfordness; Sebold weaves into this pedestrian tale a compendium of remarkable, human stories and tales from around the world. A life affirming book that reminds us how we each have the whole world within us.

Out of Nowhere, 02 Jan 2004
This was the first sebald book I purchased. It is like nothing I have read before or since. The fact that it has no story as such is immaterial to enjoyment of the often dream like qualities of this book. There is a narrative thread in the form of a journey through East Anglia but this is broken by tangental episodes and characters that drift in often seemingly from out of nowhere. This mixture of abstraction and convention is held together by an elegiac low key prose style which I find completely beguiling. Sebald has a way of communicating facts and historical episodes that make them seem fresh although the subject matter is often disturbing. The fact that as a book it is difficult to pin down in terms of style and type only enhances the compelling, enigmatic and ultimately uplifting qualities of this book. It is one of the few books I constantly return to especially after reading a highly rated 'bestseller' (which invariably doesn't come close in terms of written quality or content).

strange news from another star, 15 Oct 2003
'Rings of Saturn' is Sebald's greatest work. It has a finesse of description, and an ethereal prose style, that would be hampered by a strong narrative. In fact, Sebald is not terribly good at plot, as I believe 'Austerlitz' demonstrates. In 'Rings' the lives of the lonely and vanishing characters seem to drift in and out of vision, like figures in a misty landscape, without the artist trying to grasp them.

Something like attending a seance to which only the ghosts of obscure historical personages are summoned, 'Rings' is a beautifully melancholy read.

More history than fiction, 31 May 2003
If you are coming to this book from the redoubtable Austerlitz, make sure you know what you are getting. Rings of Saturn is not something I would describe as a novel, nor, as it says on the back cover, as travel writing or memoirs; and although it does brush against all of these genres, it sits most comfortably in the genre of history.
Austerlitz is one of my favourite books, but what you get in that - characterisation, emotion, opining, narrative thread - you get none of in ROS. ROS is a loose account of Sebald's journey across the east coast of England, where he lived and worked and died - and not a very inspiring area; but the way he constructs this book is with a collection of historical accounts: on the life of Joseph Conrad for example, and finds himself able to link them together, as it were, but the links are quite weak, and I don't think Sebald intended them to be particularly strong, more rambling and meditative; and the narrative is also quite weak, it goes literally nowhere, but again, I believe this was intentional, it is decidedly anti-plot. What I am unsure of is what Sebald's overall aim of this work was - it felt to me like the work he 'had to do' before he could write the masterpiece that is Austerlitz, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. I think this will be of interest if you enjoy what is called 'creative non-fiction' such as the historical works of Anthony Beevor, but there is not as much focus in this work, although there is probably a little more artistry. Sebald's style is like an aged cognac or an extended Chopin nocturne - lyrical and delectable - but not something you want all the time, and this is how I will treat this volume. His other works, like Emigrants, have more oomph, and can be better written, like Austerlitz, but this is still worth a read if you bear in mind the flaws.

anti-war literature at its best, 25 Jun 2008
Great novel. The journey from childhood to manhood is supposed to be full of joy and mystery, but this novel shows, doesn't tell, of what that journey is like during a world war. This book was banned by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933. If you read this novel, you'll understand why it was banned in Nazi Germany.

Read this before you die!, 08 Jun 2008
I bought an original 1929 copy on ebay and this is one hell of a book. If anyone has any idea that war is glorious you will be jarred severely by the this story. The true horror of the ordinary man fighting to keep alive is documented with crystal clear vision.

I initially found the style of writing a little off putting, but I have to say I rarely get sucked into a story as thoroughly as this one, I even have had nightmares about it's content!

In a similar way that Das Boot shared the human side of the 'enemy', AQOTWF does the same.....at the end of everything we are all very similar, whether English, French or German. We all worry and care about our loved ones.


AQOTWF was one of the books the Nazi's burnt in the 30's. That is sufficient reason to read it.

I can't say you will enjoy it, but I'm sure it will give you a valuable insight into the hellish lives the brave soldiers of all nations who suffered so much. God rest their souls.

If you are buying this book get a hold of Birdsong, it follows a similar thread.

Fantastic, 06 Mar 2008
I am one of these people who always wanted to read a great classic and enjoy it.

Unfortunately what usually happens is that I never finish a book of this type because it is too much like hard work and I go back to something less challenging.

Not so with this book. It grabbed me immediately and I lapped up every page. The author succeeded in bringing across difficult emotional subjects in an effortless way and I would thoroughly recommend it to everyone.

Exposes well the despair and hopelessness of trench warfare, 02 Dec 2007
Very tragic and horrific account of the lives of a group of German ex-classmate soldiers in the trenches of WWI. The novel brings across well the hopelessness and futility of it all, especially at the very end of the story. Most of the time the story could be about the experiences of any group of WWI soldiers from any country as there are relatively few specifically German reference points apart from the characters' names. The writing is in the present tense, which I usually find annoying and did so to some extent here, but it does bring across the drama of the action very vividly. The language is very simple and the book was a quick read despite its nearly 300 pages.

The last enemy ..., 13 Nov 2006
Erich Marie Remarque was a truly great writer of his generation. Imagine how fresh this novel was when first published - imagine reading it in the original German language. Notwithstanding the many decades that have passed it remains a masterpiece. I first read 'All Quiet' in the 1960's.
I promise you, it changed my life forever. Few books in my nearly six decades of reading have done that.

Melancholy meanderings, 28 May 2008
I was given this book in German by a friend who I think had over-estimated my proficiency in that language. I made several failed attempts to penetrate the first chapter before I gave up and ordered "the Rings of Saturn" in English from amazon. I'm glad I did.

I still found the first chapter difficult but after a while, I switched into Sebald's train of thought and was spellbound for the rest of the book. Wandering around the largely desolate, decaying and deserted Suffolk coastline becomes a metaphor for a stream of consciousness, a meandering through the mind. Sights and places spark off connections to stories about a number of historical persons and events, which all become inter-connected in the literary web that is "The Rings of Saturn".

There are recurring themes here of the nature of time, transience and permanence, death and birth. In spite of the philosophical and learned nature of the writing, this book is never dry or dull. In reading it, I learned a lot, I thought a lot and I felt a lot. I can recommend this to anyone who yearns for writing and thought of quality away from the mainstream.

Walk into a magical Journey, 10 Jan 2004
This is a wonderful book, ostensibly a chronical of a walk along the suffolk coast from Lowestoft to Orfordness; Sebold weaves into this pedestrian tale a compendium of remarkable, human stories and tales from around the world. A life affirming book that reminds us how we each have the whole world within us.

Out of Nowhere, 02 Jan 2004
This was the first sebald book I purchased. It is like nothing I have read before or since. The fact that it has no story as such is immaterial to enjoyment of the often dream like qualities of this book. There is a narrative thread in the form of a journey through East Anglia but this is broken by tangental episodes and characters that drift in often seemingly from out of nowhere. This mixture of abstraction and convention is held together by an elegiac low key prose style which I find completely beguiling. Sebald has a way of communicating facts and historical episodes that make them seem fresh although the subject matter is often disturbing. The fact that as a book it is difficult to pin down in terms of style and type only enhances the compelling, enigmatic and ultimately uplifting qualities of this book. It is one of the few books I constantly return to especially after reading a highly rated 'bestseller' (which invariably doesn't come close in terms of written quality or content).

strange news from another star, 15 Oct 2003
'Rings of Saturn' is Sebald's greatest work. It has a finesse of description, and an ethereal prose style, that would be hampered by a strong narrative. In fact, Sebald is not terribly good at plot, as I believe 'Austerlitz' demonstrates. In 'Rings' the lives of the lonely and vanishing characters seem to drift in and out of vision, like figures in a misty landscape, without the artist trying to grasp them.

Something like attending a seance to which only the ghosts of obscure historical personages are summoned, 'Rings' is a beautifully melancholy read.

More history than fiction, 31 May 2003
If you are coming to this book from the redoubtable Austerlitz, make sure you know what you are getting. Rings of Saturn is not something I would describe as a novel, nor, as it says on the back cover, as travel writing or memoirs; and although it does brush against all of these genres, it sits most comfortably in the genre of history.
Austerlitz is one of my favourite books, but what you get in that - characterisation, emotion, opining, narrative thread - you get none of in ROS. ROS is a loose account of Sebald's journey across the east coast of England, where he lived and worked and died - and not a very inspiring area; but the way he constructs this book is with a collection of historical accounts: on the life of Joseph Conrad for example, and finds himself able to link them together, as it were, but the links are quite weak, and I don't think Sebald intended them to be particularly strong, more rambling and meditative; and the narrative is also quite weak, it goes literally nowhere, but again, I believe this was intentional, it is decidedly anti-plot. What I am unsure of is what Sebald's overall aim of this work was - it felt to me like the work he 'had to do' before he could write the masterpiece that is Austerlitz, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. I think this will be of interest if you enjoy what is called 'creative non-fiction' such as the historical works of Anthony Beevor, but there is not as much focus in this work, although there is probably a little more artistry. Sebald's style is like an aged cognac or an extended Chopin nocturne - lyrical and delectable - but not something you want all the time, and this is how I will treat this volume. His other works, like Emigrants, have more oomph, and can be better written, like Austerlitz, but this is still worth a read if you bear in mind the flaws.

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig

The simplest thing would be to describe Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer's accomplished debut, as a novel about the Holocaust. It is, but that really fails to do justice to the sheer ambition of this book. The main story is a grimly familiar one. A young Jewish-American--who just happens to be called Jonathan Safran Foer--travels to the Ukraine in the hope of finding the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his search by Alex Perchov, a naïve Ukrainian translator, Alex's grandfather (also called Alex) and a flatulent mongrel bitch, named Sammy Davis JR JR. On their journey through Eastern Europe's obliterated landscape they unearth facts about the Nazi atrocities and the extent of Ukrainian complicity that have implications for Perchov as well as Safran Foer. This narrative is not, however, recounted from (the character) Jonathan Safran Foer's perspective. It is relayed through a series of letters that Alex sends to Foer. These are written in the kind of broken Russo-English normally reserved for Bond villains and Latka from the US television series Taxi. (Sentences such as "It is mammoth honour for me write for a writer, especially when he is American writer, like Ernest Hemingway"; "It is bad and popular habit for people in Ukraine to take things without asking" are the norm.) Interspersed between these letters are fragments of a novel by "Safran Foer"--a wonderfully imagined, almost magical realist, account of life in the Shetl before the Nazis destroyed it. These are in turn commented on by Alex creating an additional metafictional angle to the tale.

If all this sounds a little daunting don't be put off; Safran Foer is an extremely funny as well as intelligent writer. Admittedly he has an annoying habit of capitalising great chunks of text, but minor typographical nuances are easy to ignore in a book that combines some of the best Jewish folk yarns since Isaac Bashevis Singer with a quite heartbreaking meditation on love, friendship and loss. --Travis Elborough

anti-war literature at its best, 25 Jun 2008
Great novel. The journey from childhood to manhood is supposed to be full of joy and mystery, but this novel shows, doesn't tell, of what that journey is like during a world war. This book was banned by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933. If you read this novel, you'll understand why it was banned in Nazi Germany.

Read this before you die!, 08 Jun 2008
I bought an original 1929 copy on ebay and this is one hell of a book. If anyone has any idea that war is glorious you will be jarred severely by the this story. The true horror of the ordinary man fighting to keep alive is documented with crystal clear vision.

I initially found the style of writing a little off putting, but I have to say I rarely get sucked into a story as thoroughly as this one, I even have had nightmares about it's content!

In a similar way that Das Boot shared the human side of the 'enemy', AQOTWF does the same.....at the end of everything we are all very similar, whether English, French or German. We all worry and care about our loved ones.


AQOTWF was one of the books the Nazi's burnt in the 30's. That is sufficient reason to read it.

I can't say you will enjoy it, but I'm sure it will give you a valuable insight into the hellish lives the brave soldiers of all nations who suffered so much. God rest their souls.

If you are buying this book get a hold of Birdsong, it follows a similar thread.

Fantastic, 06 Mar 2008
I am one of these people who always wanted to read a great classic and enjoy it.

Unfortunately what usually happens is that I never finish a book of this type because it is too much like hard work and I go back to something less challenging.

Not so with this book. It grabbed me immediately and I lapped up every page. The author succeeded in bringing across difficult emotional subjects in an effortless way and I would thoroughly recommend it to everyone.

Exposes well the despair and hopelessness of trench warfare, 02 Dec 2007
Very tragic and horrific account of the lives of a group of German ex-classmate soldiers in the trenches of WWI. The novel brings across well the hopelessness and futility of it all, especially at the very end of the story. Most of the time the story could be about the experiences of any group of WWI soldiers from any country as there are relatively few specifically German reference points apart from the characters' names. The writing is in the present tense, which I usually find annoying and did so to some extent here, but it does bring across the drama of the action very vividly. The language is very simple and the book was a quick read despite its nearly 300 pages.

The last enemy ..., 13 Nov 2006
Erich Marie Remarque was a truly great writer of his generation. Imagine how fresh this novel was when first published - imagine reading it in the original German language. Notwithstanding the many decades that have passed it remains a masterpiece. I first read 'All Quiet' in the 1960's.
I promise you, it changed my life forever. Few books in my nearly six decades of reading have done that.

Melancholy meanderings, 28 May 2008
I was given this book in German by a friend who I think had over-estimated my proficiency in that language. I made several failed attempts to penetrate the first chapter before I gave up and ordered "the Rings of Saturn" in English from amazon. I'm glad I did.

I still found the first chapter difficult but after a while, I switched into Sebald's train of thought and was spellbound for the rest of the book. Wandering around the largely desolate, decaying and deserted Suffolk coastline becomes a metaphor for a stream of consciousness, a meandering through the mind. Sights and places spark off connections to stories about a number of historical persons and events, which all become inter-connected in the literary web that is "The Rings of Saturn".

There are recurring themes here of the nature of time, transience and permanence, death and birth. In spite of the philosophical and learned nature of the writing, this book is never dry or dull. In reading it, I learned a lot, I thought a lot and I felt a lot. I can recommend this to anyone who yearns for writing and thought of quality away from the mainstream.

Walk into a magical Journey, 10 Jan 2004
This is a wonderful book, ostensibly a chronical of a walk along the suffolk coast from Lowestoft to Orfordness; Sebold weaves into this pedestrian tale a compendium of remarkable, human stories and tales from around the world. A life affirming book that reminds us how we each have the whole world within us.

Out of Nowhere, 02 Jan 2004
This was the first sebald book I purchased. It is like nothing I have read before or since. The fact that it has no story as such is immaterial to enjoyment of the often dream like qualities of this book. There is a narrative thread in the form of a journey through East Anglia but this is broken by tangental episodes and characters that drift in often seemingly from out of nowhere. This mixture of abstraction and convention is held together by an elegiac low key prose style which I find completely beguiling. Sebald has a way of communicating facts and historical episodes that make them seem fresh although the subject matter is often disturbing. The fact that as a book it is difficult to pin down in terms of style and type only enhances the compelling, enigmatic and ultimately uplifting qualities of this book. It is one of the few books I constantly return to especially after reading a highly rated 'bestseller' (which invariably doesn't come close in terms of written quality or content).

strange news from another star, 15 Oct 2003
'Rings of Saturn' is Sebald's greatest work. It has a finesse of description, and an ethereal prose style, that would be hampered by a strong narrative. In fact, Sebald is not terribly good at plot, as I believe 'Austerlitz' demonstrates. In 'Rings' the lives of the lonely and vanishing characters seem to drift in and out of vision, like figures in a misty landscape, without the artist trying to grasp them.

Something like attending a seance to which only the ghosts of obscure historical personages are summoned, 'Rings' is a beautifully melancholy read.

More history than fiction, 31 May 2003
If you are coming to this book from the redoubtable Austerlitz, make sure you know what you are getting. Rings of Saturn is not something I would describe as a novel, nor, as it says on the back cover, as travel writing or memoirs; and although it does brush against all of these genres, it sits most comfortably in the genre of history.
Austerlitz is one of my favourite books, but what you get in that - characterisation, emotion, opining, narrative thread - you get none of in ROS. ROS is a loose account of Sebald's journey across the east coast of England, where he lived and worked and died - and not a very inspiring area; but the way he constructs this book is with a collection of historical accounts: on the life of Joseph Conrad for example, and finds himself able to link them together, as it were, but the links are quite weak, and I don't think Sebald intended them to be particularly strong, more rambling and meditative; and the narrative is also quite weak, it goes literally nowhere, but again, I believe this was intentional, it is decidedly anti-plot. What I am unsure of is what Sebald's overall aim of this work was - it felt to me like the work he 'had to do' before he could write the masterpiece that is Austerlitz, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. I think this will be of interest if you enjoy what is called 'creative non-fiction' such as the historical works of Anthony Beevor, but there is not as much focus in this work, although there is probably a little more artistry. Sebald's style is like an aged cognac or an extended Chopin nocturne - lyrical and delectable - but not something you want all the time, and this is how I will treat this volume. His other works, like Emigrants, have more oomph, and can be better written, like Austerlitz, but this is still worth a read if you bear in mind the flaws.

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig


Pretentious pile of poo, 25 Aug 2008
There can't be many books where the author seems to write prose that is an obstacle course for the reader. But anyone who manages to wade through Foer's pretentious book should get a gold medal. The Ukrainian Alex becomes tedious after a couple of paragraphs and the history of the shtetl should never have made it past a good editor. It's not clever, it's not funny and it's not worth your money.

The most perfect creation of beautiful fiction, 21 Aug 2008
I don't normally write reviews but if I had one mission in life it would be to get everyone to read this book. It is simply magnificent. It is so beautifully written that I had to buy two copies; one for best, and one in which I could underline all my favourite quotes (I might as well not bothered - I nearly underlined everything).

I will not explain the narrative as other reviewers have already done so, I just want to say that this book will make you laugh out loud, it will move you, and it will inspire in you feelings that you never knew you had. It is pure beauty. Please do not listen to those reviewers who gave this less than 4 stars.

This book would only seem pretentious to someone who could not appreciate great literature. This, and Foer's other novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, are the two finest books I have ever read. They instil a sense of magic in the everyday... which, in the face of the present state of society, is arguably invaluable.

I emplore you to read this book, adore it, and then buy it for everyone you love.

Quirky In The Right Ways, 23 Jul 2008
I bought this book on the strength of reading on the back cover that there was a dog in it called Sammy Davis Jr, Jr.

After reading the first page and wiping the tears from my eyes, I gleefully launched into the book walking down the pavement upon leaving the book store. To my initial disappointment the hilarity didn't continue unabated, and the book's structure took some getting used to - it is effectively a series of letters between two young men (one from the US and one from Ukraine who is armed with a thesaurus and has no fear of using it); interspersed with the narration of the two men's journey through Ukraine in search of the village of the American's forbears, which was wiped out by the Nazis; alongside a story based in the village, but from a much earlier time.

The humour does continue to thread its way through the story, but a human tenderness, and a great deal of pain also figure prominently as the story evolves.

Upon finishing the book I had been strongly moved, and had laughed out loud several times. I will enjoy reading it again.

As a word of caution though, if you don't enjoy word play, and weren't the type of kid who sat writing out their sentences including the words from their primary school weekly spelling list armed with a thesaurus and a determination to use the fanciest words possible at all times, then you may not find the humour quite so humorous!

Strange in a good way, 16 Jul 2008
I enjoyed reading this book. It was at times funny, and at times sad, and most of the time strange. The parts that were Jonathan's writings were very surreal, similar in style to South American magical realism books, and I didn't always have much idea of what was going on (I must not be intellectual enough) but helpfully, the other main character, Alex described some of the situations again in his own words and I thought, Oh, that's what that was about.
I would recommend the book to people who like things that are a little bit different.

Fantastic!, 03 Jul 2008
This book is funny, touching and just generally beautiful. I usually pass my books on to friends but I'm keeping this one to read again and again.

WG Sebald's Austerlitz has something of the fractured narrative and wanderlust of his novels The Emigrants and The Rings of Saturn, and continues to develop their obsession with history, loss and memory--or more precisely in this case, forgetting. In the decade since the original German publication of Vertigo, Sebald has established himself as indisputably one of Europe's most interesting and lauded writers.

In 1967, the narrator bumps into a man in the salle de pas perdus of Antwerp's Central Station. Thus begins a long if intermittent acquaintance, during which he learns the life story of this stranger, retired architectural historian Jacques Austerlitz. Raised as Dafydd Elias by a strict Welsh Calvinist ministry family, it is only at school that Austerlitz learns his true name--and only years later, by a series of chance encounters, that he allows himself to discover the truth of his origins, as a Czech child spirited away from his mother and out of Nazi territory on the Kindertransport. He returns to confront the childhood traumas that have made him feel that "I must have made a mistake, and now I am living the wrong life."

In this writer's hands, Austerlitz's tale of personal emotional repression becomes a metaphor for Europe's smothered past. Sebald wittily explores the tricks of time and space, unearthing Europe as an unconscious palimpsest. Delighting in lists and unfeasibly lengthy descriptions, Sebald can turn anything to poetry--even the alleged health benefits of Marienbad's Auschowitz springs become "a positive verbal coloratura of medical and diagnostic terms" (luckily, all his characters seem to be able to hold forth this way). Indeed, Sebald writes with such preternatural lucidity that even a harrowing account of writer's block ironically becomes a celebration of his own quite clearly unblockable virtuosity.

At heart, though, Austerlitz is a serious indictment of modern Europe's "avoidance system", its repeated patterns of personal and institutional forgetting that, even within Austerlitz's own lifetime, have contrived to obscure, ignore and render irretrievable his past and the source of his pain. And yet, despite the bleakness of that picture, the book ends with its hero--and its readers--committed to trying, at least, to remember. --Alan Stewart

anti-war literature at its best, 25 Jun 2008
Great novel. The journey from childhood to manhood is supposed to be full of joy and mystery, but this novel shows, doesn't tell, of what that journey is like during a world war. This book was banned by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933. If you read this novel, you'll understand why it was banned in Nazi Germany.

Read this before you die!, 08 Jun 2008
I bought an original 1929 copy on ebay and this is one hell of a book. If anyone has any idea that war is glorious you will be jarred severely by the this story. The true horror of the ordinary man fighting to keep alive is documented with crystal clear vision.

I initially found the style of writing a little off putting, but I have to say I rarely get sucked into a story as thoroughly as this one, I even have had nightmares about it's content!

In a similar way that Das Boot shared the human side of the 'enemy', AQOTWF does the same.....at the end of everything we are all very similar, whether English, French or German. We all worry and care about our loved ones.


AQOTWF was one of the books the Nazi's burnt in the 30's. That is sufficient reason to read it.

I can't say you will enjoy it, but I'm sure it will give you a valuable insight into the hellish lives the brave soldiers of all nations who suffered so much. God rest their souls.

If you are buying this book get a hold of Birdsong, it follows a similar thread.

Fantastic, 06 Mar 2008
I am one of these people who always wanted to read a great classic and enjoy it.

Unfortunately what usually happens is that I never finish a book of this type because it is too much like hard work and I go back to something less challenging.

Not so with this book. It grabbed me immediately and I lapped up every page. The author succeeded in bringing across difficult emotional subjects in an effortless way and I would thoroughly recommend it to everyone.

Exposes well the despair and hopelessness of trench warfare, 02 Dec 2007
Very tragic and horrific account of the lives of a group of German ex-classmate soldiers in the trenches of WWI. The novel brings across well the hopelessness and futility of it all, especially at the very end of the story. Most of the time the story could be about the experiences of any group of WWI soldiers from any country as there are relatively few specifically German reference points apart from the characters' names. The writing is in the present tense, which I usually find annoying and did so to some extent here, but it does bring across the drama of the action very vividly. The language is very simple and the book was a quick read despite its nearly 300 pages.

The last enemy ..., 13 Nov 2006
Erich Marie Remarque was a truly great writer of his generation. Imagine how fresh this novel was when first published - imagine reading it in the original German language. Notwithstanding the many decades that have passed it remains a masterpiece. I first read 'All Quiet' in the 1960's.
I promise you, it changed my life forever. Few books in my nearly six decades of reading have done that.

Melancholy meanderings, 28 May 2008
I was given this book in German by a friend who I think had over-estimated my proficiency in that language. I made several failed attempts to penetrate the first chapter before I gave up and ordered "the Rings of Saturn" in English from amazon. I'm glad I did.

I still found the first chapter difficult but after a while, I switched into Sebald's train of thought and was spellbound for the rest of the book. Wandering around the largely desolate, decaying and deserted Suffolk coastline becomes a metaphor for a stream of consciousness, a meandering through the mind. Sights and places spark off connections to stories about a number of historical persons and events, which all become inter-connected in the literary web that is "The Rings of Saturn".

There are recurring themes here of the nature of time, transience and permanence, death and birth. In spite of the philosophical and learned nature of the writing, this book is never dry or dull. In reading it, I learned a lot, I thought a lot and I felt a lot. I can recommend this to anyone who yearns for writing and thought of quality away from the mainstream.

Walk into a magical Journey, 10 Jan 2004
This is a wonderful book, ostensibly a chronical of a walk along the suffolk coast from Lowestoft to Orfordness; Sebold weaves into this pedestrian tale a compendium of remarkable, human stories and tales from around the world. A life affirming book that reminds us how we each have the whole world within us.

Out of Nowhere, 02 Jan 2004
This was the first sebald book I purchased. It is like nothing I have read before or since. The fact that it has no story as such is immaterial to enjoyment of the often dream like qualities of this book. There is a narrative thread in the form of a journey through East Anglia but this is broken by tangental episodes and characters that drift in often seemingly from out of nowhere. This mixture of abstraction and convention is held together by an elegiac low key prose style which I find completely beguiling. Sebald has a way of communicating facts and historical episodes that make them seem fresh although the subject matter is often disturbing. The fact that as a book it is difficult to pin down in terms of style and type only enhances the compelling, enigmatic and ultimately uplifting qualities of this book. It is one of the few books I constantly return to especially after reading a highly rated 'bestseller' (which invariably doesn't come close in terms of written quality or content).

strange news from another star, 15 Oct 2003
'Rings of Saturn' is Sebald's greatest work. It has a finesse of description, and an ethereal prose style, that would be hampered by a strong narrative. In fact, Sebald is not terribly good at plot, as I believe 'Austerlitz' demonstrates. In 'Rings' the lives of the lonely and vanishing characters seem to drift in and out of vision, like figures in a misty landscape, without the artist trying to grasp them.

Something like attending a seance to which only the ghosts of obscure historical personages are summoned, 'Rings' is a beautifully melancholy read.

More history than fiction, 31 May 2003
If you are coming to this book from the redoubtable Austerlitz, make sure you know what you are getting. Rings of Saturn is not something I would describe as a novel, nor, as it says on the back cover, as travel writing or memoirs; and although it does brush against all of these genres, it sits most comfortably in the genre of history.
Austerlitz is one of my favourite books, but what you get in that - characterisation, emotion, opining, narrative thread - you get none of in ROS. ROS is a loose account of Sebald's journey across the east coast of England, where he lived and worked and died - and not a very inspiring area; but the way he constructs this book is with a collection of historical accounts: on the life of Joseph Conrad for example, and finds himself able to link them together, as it were, but the links are quite weak, and I don't think Sebald intended them to be particularly strong, more rambling and meditative; and the narrative is also quite weak, it goes literally nowhere, but again, I believe this was intentional, it is decidedly anti-plot. What I am unsure of is what Sebald's overall aim of this work was - it felt to me like the work he 'had to do' before he could write the masterpiece that is Austerlitz, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. I think this will be of interest if you enjoy what is called 'creative non-fiction' such as the historical works of Anthony Beevor, but there is not as much focus in this work, although there is probably a little more artistry. Sebald's style is like an aged cognac or an extended Chopin nocturne - lyrical and delectable - but not something you want all the time, and this is how I will treat this volume. His other works, like Emigrants, have more oomph, and can be better written, like Austerlitz, but this is still worth a read if you bear in mind the flaws.

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig


Pretentious pile of poo, 25 Aug 2008
There can't be many books where the author seems to write prose that is an obstacle course for the reader. But anyone who manages to wade through Foer's pretentious book should get a gold medal. The Ukrainian Alex becomes tedious after a couple of paragraphs and the history of the shtetl should never have made it past a good editor. It's not clever, it's not funny and it's not worth your money.

The most perfect creation of beautiful fiction, 21 Aug 2008
I don't normally write reviews but if I had one mission in life it would be to get everyone to read this book. It is simply magnificent. It is so beautifully written that I had to buy two copies; one for best, and one in which I could underline all my favourite quotes (I might as well not bothered - I nearly underlined everything).

I will not explain the narrative as other reviewers have already done so, I just want to say that this book will make you laugh out loud, it will move you, and it will inspire in you feelings that you never knew you had. It is pure beauty. Please do not listen to those reviewers who gave this less than 4 stars.

This book would only seem pretentious to someone who could not appreciate great literature. This, and Foer's other novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, are the two finest books I have ever read. They instil a sense of magic in the everyday... which, in the face of the present state of society, is arguably invaluable.

I emplore you to read this book, adore it, and then buy it for everyone you love.

Quirky In The Right Ways, 23 Jul 2008
I bought this book on the strength of reading on the back cover that there was a dog in it called Sammy Davis Jr, Jr.

After reading the first page and wiping the tears from my eyes, I gleefully launched into the book walking down the pavement upon leaving the book store. To my initial disappointment the hilarity didn't continue unabated, and the book's structure took some getting used to - it is effectively a series of letters between two young men (one from the US and one from Ukraine who is armed with a thesaurus and has no fear of using it); interspersed with the narration of the two men's journey through Ukraine in search of the village of the American's forbears, which was wiped out by the Nazis; alongside a story based in the village, but from a much earlier time.

The humour does continue to thread its way through the story, but a human tenderness, and a great deal of pain also figure prominently as the story evolves.

Upon finishing the book I had been strongly moved, and had laughed out loud several times. I will enjoy reading it again.

As a word of caution though, if you don't enjoy word play, and weren't the type of kid who sat writing out their sentences including the words from their primary school weekly spelling list armed with a thesaurus and a determination to use the fanciest words possible at all times, then you may not find the humour quite so humorous!

Strange in a good way, 16 Jul 2008
I enjoyed reading this book. It was at times funny, and at times sad, and most of the time strange. The parts that were Jonathan's writings were very surreal, similar in style to South American magical realism books, and I didn't always have much idea of what was going on (I must not be intellectual enough) but helpfully, the other main character, Alex described some of the situations again in his own words and I thought, Oh, that's what that was about.
I would recommend the book to people who like things that are a little bit different.

Fantastic!, 03 Jul 2008
This book is funny, touching and just generally beautiful. I usually pass my books on to friends but I'm keeping this one to read again and again.

Stupendous semi-fictional exploration of memory, experience, and the holocaust, 27 Sep 2008
An innovative, fantastic exploration of memory, experience, and how the horrors of the holocaust can ruin the life of people who weren't even directly touched by it. The mixture of autobiography and fiction, as well as the copious use of photographs to enhance the narrative, make for a very real and vivid story. More than this, the book is littered with the deepest, most interesting of insights and observations. However, there were a few flaws: all the voices (even Vera's) sounded the same to me; the Jewish angle just didn't ring true, and I think this was a marginal hole in Sebald's research; and while the relationship with and symbolism of buildings was done brilliantly, I rarely felt that these characters were brought alive through their relationships with each other, as they only ever seemed to connect via a series of distant acquaintances. Perhaps this was the point, since Austerlitz is made cold and detached because of what has been stolen from him by the Nazis, but all the other characters seemed infected by the same problem too.

Strangely Strange, 14 Mar 2008
This tackles the same kind of subject matter as Boy With the Striped Pyjamas but in a much more academic way. It is a strange book. The first 50 pages are so are rather like wading through porridge. When you eventually get to the narrative part you begin to have high hopes, that are then shot down with a disappointing middle and end section.

The book is written in just one massive paragraph - which in itself isn't a great problem, but at times you feel that Sebald is trying to be just too clever and erudite for the good of the story which is essentially about the leading character's journey to find his past - again rooted in Eastern Europe.

Sadly he finds the answers all too easily which means the book becomes more a social comment than a good mystery story. The prose is interspersed with strange black and white maps and photographs that seem to add little to it and at the end it all just peters out with a new character being introduced in the last three pages which just leaves you asking the question why?

Much of the book is rambling in nature which is sad because it does have quality and is well written but the subject matter ends up in disappointment.

Impenetrable, 29 Nov 2007
The synopsis for this book reads as just the kind of thing I enjoy. The themes of repression and memory, the war as dispossesion as a vehicle for that and a complex, untraditional narrative. These all tick boxes for me, and indeed all are present within the book. Despite that I just found this book endlessly easy to put down. I did finish it, but it was more a matter of pride than enjoyment. I found the narrative too fragmented to allow me to fully engage with the plot and the characters and because there was very little to connect me to the text I found I lost interest very easily. It should have been a good book, but for me it just wasn't.

Esoteric, atmospheric, irritating but ultimately haunting....., 23 Oct 2007
In 1939 a five year old is sent from Prague to Wales to escape the imminent disaster. He soon forgets all of his previous life and grows up knowing nothing of his past. However in adulthood he comes he is haunted by his unknown identity and by his absence of memories. The loveless Welsh household and the harsh private school are superbly described.

The book is narrated by someone who meets Austerlitz in Belgium. Their friendship continues and they meet up occasionally and Austerlitz continues to tell of the progress he has made. The writing is atmospheric and haunting - goes off into reveries on architecture, fortifications, moths, museum exhibits, maps, etc etc. I have to confess I found some of these quite irritating - and some of the vocabulary seemed deliberately esoteric.......

Austerlitz took photographs continually and the book is liberally illustrated by these. Many are very badly reproduced (deliberately?) and I am not sure how much they finally contributed to the overall narrative.

The reviews were glowing but on finishing reading it I had quite ambivalent feelings - irritation mixed with admiration. However I found that images from this book came back to haunt me days after I had finished it..... perhaps it was better than I gave it credit for!





small pleasures, 13 Sep 2007
It is unjust that some of the back-cover blurbs speak so highly of this pseudo-literature. I almost gave up after 50 pages or so; losing patience with the lack of paragraph or chapter breaks, the determined lack of plot and characterisation, and the relentlessly pedantic and impassive tone. There is a hint of purpose after about 200 pages, as the author creeps predictable towards the Holocaust, but any hope of dramatic denouement is snuffed out by a disappointing detour into another barely significant scene. The whole book is a series of hollow digressions, each with an unwarranted attention to the details of objects and artefacts. It hints at feeling but never stirs the imagination. Although his prose style is light and elegant, this is the literary equivalent of finding an old photo album in a stranger's attic: quaint, curious but distant and unmoving.

anti-war literature at its best, 25 Jun 2008
Great novel. The journey from childhood to manhood is supposed to be full of joy and mystery, but this novel shows, doesn't tell, of what that journey is like during a world war. This book was banned by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933. If you read this novel, you'll understand why it was banned in Nazi Germany.

Read this before you die!, 08 Jun 2008
I bought an original 1929 copy on ebay and this is one hell of a book. If anyone has any idea that war is glorious you will be jarred severely by the this story. The true horror of the ordinary man fighting to keep alive is documented with crystal clear vision.

I initially found the style of writing a little off putting, but I have to say I rarely get sucked into a story as thoroughly as this one, I even have had nightmares about it's content!

In a similar way that Das Boot shared the human side of the 'enemy', AQOTWF does the same.....at the end of everything we are all very similar, whether English, French or German. We all worry and care about our loved ones.


AQOTWF was one of the books the Nazi's burnt in the 30's. That is sufficient reason to read it.

I can't say you will enjoy it, but I'm sure it will give you a valuable insight into the hellish lives the brave soldiers of all nations who suffered so much. God rest their souls.

If you are buying this book get a hold of Birdsong, it follows a similar thread.

Fantastic, 06 Mar 2008
I am one of these people who always wanted to read a great classic and enjoy it.

Unfortunately what usually happens is that I never finish a book of this type because it is too much like hard work and I go back to something less challenging.

Not so with this book. It grabbed me immediately and I lapped up every page. The author succeeded in bringing across difficult emotional subjects in an effortless way and I would thoroughly recommend it to everyone.

Exposes well the despair and hopelessness of trench warfare, 02 Dec 2007
Very tragic and horrific account of the lives of a group of German ex-classmate soldiers in the trenches of WWI. The novel brings across well the hopelessness and futility of it all, especially at the very end of the story. Most of the time the story could be about the experiences of any group of WWI soldiers from any country as there are relatively few specifically German reference points apart from the characters' names. The writing is in the present tense, which I usually find annoying and did so to some extent here, but it does bring across the drama of the action very vividly. The language is very simple and the book was a quick read despite its nearly 300 pages.

The last enemy ..., 13 Nov 2006
Erich Marie Remarque was a truly great writer of his generation. Imagine how fresh this novel was when first published - imagine reading it in the original German language. Notwithstanding the many decades that have passed it remains a masterpiece. I first read 'All Quiet' in the 1960's.
I promise you, it changed my life forever. Few books in my nearly six decades of reading have done that.

Melancholy meanderings, 28 May 2008
I was given this book in German by a friend who I think had over-estimated my proficiency in that language. I made several failed attempts to penetrate the first chapter before I gave up and ordered "the Rings of Saturn" in English from amazon. I'm glad I did.

I still found the first chapter difficult but after a while, I switched into Sebald's train of thought and was spellbound for the rest of the book. Wandering around the largely desolate, decaying and deserted Suffolk coastline becomes a metaphor for a stream of consciousness, a meandering through the mind. Sights and places spark off connections to stories about a number of historical persons and events, which all become inter-connected in the literary web that is "The Rings of Saturn".

There are recurring themes here of the nature of time, transience and permanence, death and birth. In spite of the philosophical and learned nature of the writing, this book is never dry or dull. In reading it, I learned a lot, I thought a lot and I felt a lot. I can recommend this to anyone who yearns for writing and thought of quality away from the mainstream.

Walk into a magical Journey, 10 Jan 2004
This is a wonderful book, ostensibly a chronical of a walk along the suffolk coast from Lowestoft to Orfordness; Sebold weaves into this pedestrian tale a compendium of remarkable, human stories and tales from around the world. A life affirming book that reminds us how we each have the whole world within us.

Out of Nowhere, 02 Jan 2004
This was the first sebald book I purchased. It is like nothing I have read before or since. The fact that it has no story as such is immaterial to enjoyment of the often dream like qualities of this book. There is a narrative thread in the form of a journey through East Anglia but this is broken by tangental episodes and characters that drift in often seemingly from out of nowhere. This mixture of abstraction and convention is held together by an elegiac low key prose style which I find completely beguiling. Sebald has a way of communicating facts and historical episodes that make them seem fresh although the subject matter is often disturbing. The fact that as a book it is difficult to pin down in terms of style and type only enhances the compelling, enigmatic and ultimately uplifting qualities of this book. It is one of the few books I constantly return to especially after reading a highly rated 'bestseller' (which invariably doesn't come close in terms of written quality or content).

strange news from another star, 15 Oct 2003
'Rings of Saturn' is Sebald's greatest work. It has a finesse of description, and an ethereal prose style, that would be hampered by a strong narrative. In fact, Sebald is not terribly good at plot, as I believe 'Austerlitz' demonstrates. In 'Rings' the lives of the lonely and vanishing characters seem to drift in and out of vision, like figures in a misty landscape, without the artist trying to grasp them.

Something like attending a seance to which only the ghosts of obscure historical personages are summoned, 'Rings' is a beautifully melancholy read.

More history than fiction, 31 May 2003
If you are coming to this book from the redoubtable Austerlitz, make sure you know what you are getting. Rings of Saturn is not something I would describe as a novel, nor, as it says on the back cover, as travel writing or memoirs; and although it does brush against all of these genres, it sits most comfortably in the genre of history.
Austerlitz is one of my favourite books, but what you get in that - characterisation, emotion, opining, narrative thread - you get none of in ROS. ROS is a loose account of Sebald's journey across the east coast of England, where he lived and worked and died - and not a very inspiring area; but the way he constructs this book is with a collection of historical accounts: on the life of Joseph Conrad for example, and finds himself able to link them together, as it were, but the links are quite weak, and I don't think Sebald intended them to be particularly strong, more rambling and meditative; and the narrative is also quite weak, it goes literally nowhere, but again, I believe this was intentional, it is decidedly anti-plot. What I am unsure of is what Sebald's overall aim of this work was - it felt to me like the work he 'had to do' before he could write the masterpiece that is Austerlitz, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. I think this will be of interest if you enjoy what is called 'creative non-fiction' such as the historical works of Anthony Beevor, but there is not as much focus in this work, although there is probably a little more artistry. Sebald's style is like an aged cognac or an extended Chopin nocturne - lyrical and delectable - but not something you want all the time, and this is how I will treat this volume. His other works, like Emigrants, have more oomph, and can be better written, like Austerlitz, but this is still worth a read if you bear in mind the flaws.

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig


Pretentious pile of poo, 25 Aug 2008
There can't be many books where the author seems to write prose that is an obstacle course for the reader. But anyone who manages to wade through Foer's pretentious book should get a gold medal. The Ukrainian Alex becomes tedious after a couple of paragraphs and the history of the shtetl should never have made it past a good editor. It's not clever, it's not funny and it's not worth your money.

The most perfect creation of beautiful fiction, 21 Aug 2008
I don't normally write reviews but if I had one mission in life it would be to get everyone to read this book. It is simply magnificent. It is so beautifully written that I had to buy two copies; one for best, and one in which I could underline all my favourite quotes (I might as well not bothered - I nearly underlined everything).

I will not explain the narrative as other reviewers have already done so, I just want to say that this book will make you laugh out loud, it will move you, and it will inspire in you feelings that you never knew you had. It is pure beauty. Please do not listen to those reviewers who gave this less than 4 stars.

This book would only seem pretentious to someone who could not appreciate great literature. This, and Foer's other novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, are the two finest books I have ever read. They instil a sense of magic in the everyday... which, in the face of the present state of society, is arguably invaluable.

I emplore you to read this book, adore it, and then buy it for everyone you love.

Quirky In The Right Ways, 23 Jul 2008
I bought this book on the strength of reading on the back cover that there was a dog in it called Sammy Davis Jr, Jr.

After reading the first page and wiping the tears from my eyes, I gleefully launched into the book walking down the pavement upon leaving the book store. To my initial disappointment the hilarity didn't continue unabated, and the book's structure took some getting used to - it is effectively a series of letters between two young men (one from the US and one from Ukraine who is armed with a thesaurus and has no fear of using it); interspersed with the narration of the two men's journey through Ukraine in search of the village of the American's forbears, which was wiped out by the Nazis; alongside a story based in the village, but from a much earlier time.

The humour does continue to thread its way through the story, but a human tenderness, and a great deal of p