4 a.m.

Author(s): Nina De La Mer

Location(s): Fallingbostel, Hamburg

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 1990s

Location

Content

Set in the early 1990s on a British army base, 4 a.m. tells the story of Cal and Manny, soldiers posted to Germany as army chefs. Bored and institutionalised, the pair soon succumb to the neon temptations of Hamburg’s red-light district, where they dive into a seedy world of recreational drugs and all-night raves. But it is only a matter of time before hedonism and military discipline clash head on, with comic and poignant consequences.

Life-affirming raving soon gives way to gloomy, drug-fuelled nights in fast food restaurants, at sex shows, and in Turkish dive bars. As a succession of events ratchets up the pressure on Cal and Manny their friendship is tested, a secret is revealed, and a shocking betrayal changes one of their lives forever. 4 a.m. depicts life in a peacetime Army and a civilian world in which conflict is never far away. Driven by two distinctive voices, and written in a lively and buzzing style, Nina de la Mer’s début novel holds a mirror up to youth culture at the end of the twentieth century. The reflection is not always a flattering one.

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