The Good German Reading Group Guide (Reading Group Guides)

JOSEPH KANON

Picador USA

The Good German

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Little,Brown

From the bestselling author of LOS ALAMOS and THE GOOD GERMAN comes a riveting tale of love, revenge and murder set in postwar VeniceIt is 1946, and a stunned Europe is beginning its slow recovery from the ravages of World War II. Adam Miller has come to Venice to visit his widowed mother and try to forget the horrors he has witnessed as a U.S. Army war crimes investigator in Germany. Nothing has changed in Venice—not the beautiful palazzi, not the violins at Florian’s, not the shifting water that makes the city, untouched by bombs, still seem a dream. But when Adam falls in love with Claudia, a Jewish woman scarred by her devastating experiences during the war, he is forced to confront another Venice, a city still at war with itself, haunted by atrocities it would rather forget. Everyone, he discovers, has been compromised by the Occupation—the international set drinking at Harry’s, the police who kept order for the Germans, and most of all Gianni Maglione, the suave and enigmatic Venetian who happens to be his mother’s new suitor. And when, finally, the troubled past erupts in violent murder, Adam finds himself at the center of a web of deception, intrigue, and unexpected moral dilemmas. When is murder acceptable? What are the limits of guilt? How much is someone willing to pay for a perfect alibi? Using the piazzas and canals of Venice as an enthralling but sinister backdrop, Joseph Kanon has again written a gripping historical thriller. ALIBI is at once a murder mystery, a love story, and a superbly crafted novel about the nature of moral responsibility.

Alibi

Walter Kotlar is the epitome of the American dream, the son of working class immigrants who attends Yale and becomes part of the establishment, but he is caught up in the '50s fear of the 'red menace' and forced to testify before the Committee on Un-American Activities.  He seems a very unlikely Communist, but before the hearing is concluded he has disappeared - defected to the East - though not before the chief witness has committed 'suicide'. 19 years later his son, Nick, receivies a message that his father wants to see him in Prague.  His first reaction is rejection and denial, but his memories and curiosity combined with a deep attraction for the messenger persuade him to risk the  journey only a year after the Russian invasion.  He discovers his father to be dying and eager to 'come home'.  He learns too that the events preceding Walter's defection were not as simplistic as he'd thought, but before he can really work out what had happened his father is dead, probably murdered. Sure now that his father is more victim than villain, Nick knows he can only prove this in America, but he is stuck in a country where rules of evidence and justice are ignored and gertting out is not going to be straightforward ...

Cascades

Not Avail

Walter Kotlar is the epitome of the American dream, the son of working class immigrants who attends Yale and becomes part of the establishment, but he is caught up in the '50s fear of the 'red menace' and forced to testify before the Committee on Un-American Activities. He seems a very unlikely Communist, but before the hearing is concluded he has disappeared - defected to the East - though not before the chief witness has committed 'suicide'. 19 years later his son, Nick, receives a message that his father wants to see him in Prague. His first reaction is rejection and denial, but his memories and curiosity combined with a deep attraction for the messenger persuade him to risk the journey only a year after the Russian invasion. He discovers his father to be dying and eager to 'come home'. He learns too that the events preceding Walter's defection were not as simplistic as he'd thought, but before he can really work out what had happened his father is dead, probably murdered. Sure now that his father is more victim than villain, Nick knows he can only prove this in America, but he is stuck in a country where rules of evidence and justice are ignored and getting out is not going to be straightforward ...

The Prodigal Spy

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

ABACUS +

BOOKS ON TAPE]

<p>From the book's dustjacket..."What if the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s had actually uncovered a spy?; Washington, 1950. An ambitious congressman accuses Walter Kotlar, a high-level State Department official, of treason. As Nick, Walter's son, watches helplessly, his family's privileged world is turned upside down in a frenzy of banging gavels. Then when the chief witness against his father plunges to her death, Walter flees, leaving only an endless mystery and the stain of his defection. It would be better, Nick is told, to think of him as dead.; But 20 years later Walter Kotlar is still alive and, desperate to end his own Cold War, badly wants to see his son. Nick agrees to travel to Prague for the painful reunion. Once there, he finds nothing is what it seems--not the shadowy city; not the woman with whome he falls in love; and certainly not his father.; Walter has an impossible request: He wants to come home, and he wants Nick to help. He also has a valuable secret about what happened the night he walked out of Nick's life--and about the deadly conspiracy that still threatens them."</p>

Broadway

<p>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 and, miraculously, his lost love, Lena. But in the way she would not leave with him before the war, Lena won't join him now without finding her husband and 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 and the thriving black market, Jake discovers that the twilight war of intrigue between west and east has already begun and that he could quite easily be one of its first casualties. This is a novel of war, an action thriller, a tale of raw emotion and survival. Above all it is a tour de force of the triumph of humanity over man's depravity.</p>

Little Brown P/B

Contemporary

SPHERE

Los Alamos

Literary

TIME WARNER PAPERBAC

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Books by JOSEPH KANON