The Good German
The Good German book cover

The Good German

Paperback – Bargain Price, October 31, 2006

Price
$27.65
Format
Paperback
Pages
482
Publisher
Picador
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1615537082
Dimensions
5.5 x 0.88 x 8.22 inches
Weight
14.4 ounces

Description

"[Joseph Kanon] is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carréxa0and Greene but even of Orwell: provocative, fully realized fiction that explores, as only fiction can, the reality of history as it is lived by individual men and women."-- The New York Times Book Review "Kanon serves up a potent mix of intrigue, cynicism, and an occasional flash of idealism, which adds up to a riveting yarn."-- Los Angeles Times "Kanon is as ambitious a novelist as he is a gifted one."-- The Washington Post "The kind of book that reads so easily that it's almost impossible to put down once you've started it."-- The Baltimore Sun "A terrific book . . . Kanon is the heir apparent to Graham Greene and early- and mid-passage le Carré, for he writes of moral quandaries that are real and not created to drive a plot. . . . The multilayered story is beautifully told."-- The Boston Globe "Gripping . . . Kanon has written a tale about the untenable choices war entails, and about the moral dangers of demonization. For American readers, the book cuts to the bone, coming at a time when we have become the demonized and are doing our best to avoid becoming the demonizers."-- Newsday Joseph Kanon is the author of four novels, including Alibi . Before becoming a full-time writer, he was a book publishing executive. He lives in New York City.

Features & Highlights

  • Now a Major Motion Picture
  • The bestselling author of
  • Los Alamos
  • and
  • Alibi
  • returns to 1945. Hitler has been defeated and Berlin is divided into zones of occupation. Jake Geismar, an American correspondent who spent time in the city before the war, has returned to write about the Allied triumph while pursuing a more personal quest: his search for Lena, the married woman he left behind.
  • The Good German
  • is a story of espionage, love, and murder, an extraordinary re-creation of a city devastated by war, and a thriller that asks the most profound ethical questions in its exploration of the nature of justice and what we mean by good and evil in times of peace and of war.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(867)
★★★★
25%
(722)
★★★
15%
(433)
★★
7%
(202)
23%
(665)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

One of those books that deserves to be dragged out of the spy thriller category

Joseph Kanon isn't quite John le Carré, but his books nonetheless deserve to be treated as more than spy thrillers. Kanon writes books for adults, who don't need thrill-a-minute action to maintain interest. The historical detail, the believable characters and the action that is sometimes slow and deliberate all make for a real novel. It's always far more interesting to see real people in real situations than the heightened, over-the-top stuff of most thrillers and mystery novels.

Good stuff. Four stars.
1 people found this helpful