conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide a description for a book titled Then We Take Berlin about Joe, Berlin, German with the genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers & Suspense.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: *Starred Review* the authors superb A Lily of the Field (2010) moved from the 1930s through the immediate postwar era, mainly in London. Here he focuses again on that richly atmospheric wake-of-the-war period, both in London and in Berlin. Joe Wilderness, an East End cat burglar who learned his trade from his grandfather, is drafted into the RAF in 1946 and then quickly taken under the wing of intelligence officer Lieutenant Colonel Burne-Jones, who sees Joes special talents as extremely handy in the coming Cold War. Thats fine with Joe, but, meanwhile, Berlin appears to him as the ultimate candy storea black marketeers wet dreamand he sets out with another Englishman, an American officer, and a major in the Russian NKVD, to make an illicit fortune from the rubble of the once-grand German city. Their reach exceeds their grasp, of course, and after the scam comes crashing down, Joe is rescued by Burne-Jones but not before losing the love of his life, a German girl, Nell, whose weary idealism stands in sharp opposition to Joes cheerful larceny. Bump forward 15 years: Joe is reunited with the American officer, who has another scheme: this time the plan involves smuggling people, not dry goods. Joe goes along, hoping mainly to reconnect with Nell, now a West German diplomat helping to plan President Kennedys Berlin visit. the author captures both the immediate postwar and midcentury landscapes perfectly, stirring elements of Graham Greene, John le Carr, and the great Ross Thomas too-little-known McCorkle and Padillo novels into a superbly well-built Cold War cocktailbracing, deliriously delicious, but carrying the slightly bitter aftertaste of dreams gone bad. --Bill Ott