Diary of a dead man on leave / David Downing.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781616958435
- ISBN: 9781641291293
- ISBN: 161695843X
- Physical Description: 295 pages ; 24 cm
- Publisher: New York : Soho, 2019.
- Copyright: ©2019.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Communists > Germany > Fiction. Boardinghouses > Fiction. Diaries > Fiction. World War, 1939-1945 > Germany > Fiction. Germany > History > 1933-1945 > Fiction. |
Genre: | Spy fiction. Suspense fiction. Spy stories. Historical fiction. |
Available copies
- 4 of 4 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 0 of 0 copies available at Sechelt/Gibsons.
- 0 of 0 copies available at Gibsons Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 4 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
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- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 April #2
*Starred Review* It is April 1938, and war is looming in Europe. A man calling himself Josef Hoffmann, who is a spy for the Soviet Comintern, has taken up residence in the north German town of Hamm. His assignment is to foment resistance among workers sympathetic to communism. No easy task, given the lurking presence of the gestapo, but Josef has another problem: his commitment to the Soviet cause is wavering, not out of any ideological misgivings but because he has become involved in the family at whose house he is boarding, particularly young Walter, who is fatherless and desperately needs a mentor. Josef knows his mission is not to become a surrogate father, but, on the other hand, he thinks, "I don't want [Walter's] name added to the lengthening list of those I have failed to help because I was too busy helping everyman." We learn about Josef's situation through the personal journal he kept for the eight months he was in Hamm, and the voice that emerges is one of a man struggling with the enduring issue that surfaces and resurfaces throughout espionage fiction, from Graham Greene to John le Carré and Alan Furst: loyalty to country versus loyalty to the individual. As the Nazi yoke threatens to tighten around Walter and his family, Josef finds himself forced to admit that "at this particular moment in time, Walter's need is greater than Comrade Stalin's." This is a quiet, largely introspective spy novel, very different in mood from Downing's adventure-fueled Jack McColl novels, but it packs an equal if not greater emotional wallop. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2018 November #2
Copyright 2018 Library Journal. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2019 March #3
Downing (the John Russell series) has never been better than in this moving and elegiac thriller framed as a diary written by a German calling himself Josef Hofmann. In April 1938, Hofmann returns to his native country on behalf of the Communist International organization. The leaders of the Communist Party want to know whether "there are still enough Communists in Germany brave or foolhardy enough to constitute a significant fifth column inside Hitler's Reich." Hofmann, a member of the Comintern's International Liaison Section, is ridden with guilt over a lengthy list "of those I failed to help because I was too busy helping everyman." In the town of Hamm, a former stronghold of the country's Communist Party, Hofmann seeks to locate any survivors among 19 party members who worked there when the Nazis seized power and gauge their current loyalties while keeping his own hidden. Meanwhile, he becomes emotionally involved with the family in whose boarding house he's staying, an entanglement that may compromise his assignment. Le Carré fans will be pleased. Agent: Charlie Viney, Viney Agency. (Apr.)
Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly.