Jake Geismar cut his teeth as a foreign correspondent in pre-war Berlin. When he returns in 1945 to cover the Potsdam conference he finds the city unrecognisable
- streets have vanished beneath the rubble, familiar landmarks truncated by high explosive. But amongst the ruins Berliners survive, including some he knew &, miraculously, his lost love, Lena. However, in the same way she refused to leave with him before the war, Lena won`t join him now without finding her husband & Emil has disappeared from the safe care of the Americans who, turning a blind eye to his links with Hitler, want his expertise as a rocket designer for themselves. Trawling through the shambles of the city, through the illegal night clubs & the thriving black market, Jake discovers that the twilight war of intrigue between west & east has already begun & that he could quite easily be one of its first casualties. This superb novel from the author of Leaving Berlin is now rightly considered a modern classic.