Novel set in Berlin and Berne (“Welcome to the heart of Europe”)

7th January 2015

News from Berlin by Otto de Kat, novel set in Berlin and Berne.

Top secret information shared. The fall out is considerable….

It is 1941. Oscar, a Dutch diplomat, is living in Berne, his wife, Kate, is nursing at a hospital for war casualties in London. Their relationship and lives, lyrically described by the author, are “much as sparrows perching on the same clothes line: fairly content, fairly tame. Their embrace seemed to have lost its necessity and the distance between Berne and London did not make them yearn for one another“. Their daughter, Emma, is living in Berlin with her husband, ‘the good German’ Carl. War is raging.

Emma has overheard that Operation Barbarossa is scheduled for the 22nd of June – just a couple of weeks hence – the massing of German troops on the Eastern front, gearing up for an attack on Russia. The Allies are unlikely to know about this. She shares this secret information with her father, because he will know what to do. Oscar finds himself going through hoops of mental acrobatics to work out what he can – and indeed – should do with the information. Inevitably, he feels, the information once made public will immediately lead back to the source, to his daughter, and that her life will then be in danger. But what of the moral implication, that thousands of people who could be saved if the information is delivered into the right hands? … A real turmoil for him.

Oscar mulls over his situation. Who can he tell, who will believe him? Meanwhile, he has lost his heart to Lara whom he meets up in the mountains in Switzerland, their affair initially is more of longing looks, brushed contact and walks in the snow. Meanwhile, Kate, in her capacity of nurse in London, has been tending Matteous from the Congo, and she sorts out a bedsit for him once he is has recuperated from his injuries. He is intent upon learning to write sufficiently well so that he can find his mother, who was taken away in an ambush in his home country. Kate seems to be falling for him.

This is a beautifully written and translated short book that captures the imagination. Yet it is too loosely woven to really punch home the morals with which Oscar is grappling, or link the tenuous relationships between the characters. It is unclear where the author really wants to go with the storyline and the ending is like a bit of a side show – it demonstrates that Oscar has a dark and secretive side. Ultimately the story flounders and lacks real, satisfying depth.

The locations of Berlin – Dahlem, and Berne, “the capital of sun and snow”,  are well captured

Will this be a memorable book? Quite possibly it will fade over time but an enjoyable read for the here and now.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

And do drop by and connect with the Team at TripFiction via social media: Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest and when we have some interesting photos we can sometimes be found over on Instagram too.

Subscribe to future blog posts