Brandenburg Gate
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4.2 • 17 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
As East Germany collapses, a former Stasi agent is caught in the crossfire of international espionage in this "tour de force on par with John le Carré" (Library Journal, starred review).
Winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award
September 1989. In the tense final days before the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany's Communist government is on the brink of collapse. Even the Stasi, once a notoriously fearsome intelligence agency, can't stop the rebellion. In a desperate play for advantage, they send former foreign agent Dr. Rudi Rosenharte to Trieste to rendezvous with his old lover and fellow agent, Annalise Schering. They believe Annalise has vital intelligence. The only problem: Rudi knows she's dead. After seeing her lying in her own bloodied bathwater, he kept her suicide a secret.
As collateral for this mission, the Stasi have imprisoned Rudi's family. But the Stasi is not the only agency using him as a pawn. Soon the British MI6 and American CIA encircle him, forcing him to make an impossible choice.
"An elegant spy thriller that, I believe, John le Carré himself would be pleased to have attributed to him." —The Guardian
"Porter combines impeccable research with compelling characters caught up in the broad sweep of fascinating historical events . . . [a] riveting read." —Publishers Weekly
"A top-notch Cold War thriller." —Library Journal, starred review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in East Germany during the bleak, waning days of 1989, this stand-alone thriller from British author Porter (A Spy's Life) combines impeccable research with compelling characters caught up in the broad sweep of fascinating historical events. The Stasi want art scholar Dr. Rudi Rosenharte to take part in a dangerous mission involving a former lover Rudi knows is dead, but who the Stasi thinks is not only alive but also harboring vital state secrets. Rudi has little choice, since the Stasi are holding Rudi's brother, Konrad, and his family hostage. Rudi, an ex-Stasi agent himself, clandestinely enlists the aid of the British SIS, the CIA and even the KGB as he pits all of these agencies against one another in an effort to smuggle Konrad and family across the border to the safety of the West. Readers will know that in a few weeks the Wall will be torn down, but at the time, as Porter makes clear, this was not a foregone conclusion, and death and disaster, as in Tiananmen Square, was a real possibility. It's easy to see why this riveting read won the CWA's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award.
