HISTORICAL
NIGHTMARE IN BERLIN by Hans Fallada (Scribe £15.99) HanS Fallada’S alone in Berlin, the story of a couple distributing anti-nazi literature and paying a high price for it, is an acknowledged classic. never before published in english, and strongly autobiographical, this earlier novel, nightmare in Berlin, has at its heart a comparable nightmare of guilt and retribution.
in april 1945, the reich has collapsed and, in a small town in the north-east region, dr doll has been made mayor by the recently arrived red army.
Will Germany ever be forgiven, he asks as he struggles to keep afloat in the cauldron of jealousies, retribution and remorse that characterise his ‘wretched’ homeland.
With his much younger wife, he flees to Berlin where, in the battle to stay alive, they succumb to addiction. Fallada and his own wife also had drug problems and his portrait of the dolls is both painful and poignant, even if the novel does not quite match the stature of his later one. THE DEVIL’S FEAST by M.J. Carter (Fig Tree £14.99) all is not well at the mighty reform Club in london, even with the great chef alexis Soyer, ‘ the napoleon of food’, making culinary waves in its kitchens. a man has died on the premises and it looks suspiciously like murder.
terrified for the club’s reputation, its grandees persuade a reluctant Captain William avery to solve the case.
the murders mount, however. Could they be connected to the imminent arrival at the club of the eastern potentate, ibrahim Pasha, who is instrumental in the Middle east peace process?
avery is desperate for his partner, Jeremiah, to come and help him out, but he is banged up in Marshalsea prison.
the keynote to this third Blake & avery outing is enjoyment — in the sharp, clever plot, the telling detail and the author’s uncanny ability to summon up the inner sanctum of the Victorian male club, a debtor’s prison or Soyer’s extraordinary dishes. THE PLAGUE CHARMER by Karen Maitland (Headline Review £13.99) Karen Maitland’S blend of history, myth and superstition is unleashed in this story of the pestilenceridden fishing village of Porlock Weir in the West Country. in 1361, the second wave of the Black death is decimating the population.
no one is exempt: and with every death the human suffering and despair intensifies until, one day, a strange woman is pulled from the sea who tells the stricken villagers that she can save them for a price — which is a human life. Who would be willing to pay it?
Seven novels in, Karen Maitland is totally at home in her chosen territory — a meticulously detailed medieval setting into which she imports lashings of high Gothic drama and supernatural twists.
if you like dark, atmospheric, historical fantasy, then this is definitely one for you.