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S**
Love and integrity, beautifully written
This is a engrossing story about love, integrity and courage with characters that are beautifully written. Anna is a strong, complex, beautiful, brave woman who bears witness to the rise and fall of the third Reich through her photojournalism. Anna belongs nowhere and so can see with a clarity and perspicacity. Born in Hollywood, she has learned her silent film maker, English father's knack for bravado and sharp wits and has her American mother's chutzpah and refusal to be controlled. Harry is an amazing man and an English spy. He charms everyone and makes Anna feel safe. Ivo Wolff is Anna's handsome, Nazi husband, who asks her to pretend not to be Jewish and is father of her 2 children. Moving between 1989 Berlin and 1920s and 30s Hollywood, then Vienna and Berlin, author SW Perry's gripping and absorbing story evokes place and politics, music, sexuality, hatred and divided loyalty in a moving, sensitive way. I enjoyed the layers to this book, relishing the way Perry describes his characters as both brilliant and flawed and very human.
R**L
One of my most absorbing reads of the year so far
This is an epic tale, reminiscent of work by William Boyd or Sebastian Faulks, focussing on the pre-war, war-time and post-war exploits of Anna, a British/American war photographer recruited by the British Secret Service to spy. Her personal experiences are vividly described against the backdrop of actual historic events.The other storyteller and partner in this duet is retired British intelligence officer, Harry, who was Anna’s young, inexperienced handler during the war. His narrative opens in 1989 in Berlin, where he still lives. The night of the fall of the Wall triggers his memories and he recounts to his daughter his wartime involvement with Anna.It is a richly described voyage into the lives of ordinary people during times of great change, danger and suffering. The post-war portrayal of Berlin and its population in ruins is particularly profound.Berlin Duet is authentic, meticulously researched and fluently written.This is an independent review of a NetGalley early copy.
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