**'Up there with the very best . . . Kanon writes beautifully, superbly . . . He is the master of the shadows of the era' THE TIMES
From the author of The Good German (made into a film starring George Clooney), Leaving Berlin is a sweeping post-war story and an international bestseller.**
Berlin is still in ruins almost four years after the war, caught between political idealism and the harsh realities of Soviet occupation. Alex Meier is a young Jewish writer who fled the Nazis for America before the war. Now, the politics of his youth have left him embroiled in the McCarthy witch-hunts. Faced with deportation and the loss of his family, Alex makes a desperate bargain with the fledgling CIA: he will earn his way back to America by acting as their agent in his native Berlin.
**But almost from the start things go fatally wrong. Espionage, like the black market, is still a way of life.
PRAISE FOR LEAVING BERLIN:**
'An unforgettable picture of a city wrecked by defeat and betrayal. Brilliant' THE TIMES
'Leaving Berlin is hauntingly and beautifully written. You're going to love it . . . Falling into the book is like falling into a vice; it grips you, pitilessly, until the last page' RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB
'Hugely exciting' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'One of the most exciting books I've read in years' ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series
'Brings the hardships and moral decay of post-war Berlin to life in glorious detail'DAILY EXPRESS
