Over the next few weeks, Marnham finds that his job is becoming less and less important to him even when he receives a secret assignment from a British superior. As he puts that plan into effect, he unexpectedly encounters Maria herself in a meeting that results in his being seduced into a relationship that opens him up both emotionally and sexually. The night before he is due to officially start work, Glass takes Marnham out to a succession of nightclubs, where he gets increasingly drunk and encounters the attractive Maria, a German woman with whom he quickly and irreversibly becomes attracted.Īs he becomes absorbed into his dull and repetitive nature job, Marnham becomes obsessed with thoughts of Maria, eventually putting together a plan to meet her. After receiving a series of orders, first from a British contact and then from his American supervisor, Bob Glass, Marnham finds himself assigned on a top secret surveillance project, headquartered in a secret facility outside Berlin and co-sponsored by the American and British intelligence agencies. The narrative begins shortly after Marnham's arrival in Berlin. Both these narrative lines are, on some level, defined by the narrative's examination of the complex relationships between conquered and conqueror.
As he finds himself caught up in a web of tensions spun between the American and British allies, he also discovers the joys of love and sexuality, with the two aspects of his life coming together in a horrific and intense climax. This novel, a blend of coming of age narrative and espionage thriller, tells the story of Leonard Marnham, a young British postal worker and unexpected government agent in Berlin in the months following the end of World War II.
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