Diary of a Dead Man on Leave, David Downing
Diary of a Dead Man on Leave, David Downing
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Diary of a Dead Man on Leave

Author: David Downing

Narrator: David de Vries, Paul Woodson

Unabridged: 9 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 04/02/2019


Synopsis

From bestselling author David Downing, master of historical espionage, comes a heart-wrenching depiction of Germany in the days leading up to World War II and the difficult choices of one man of conviction. In April 1938, a man calling himself Josef Hofmann arrives at a boarding house in Hamm, Germany, and lets a room from the widow who owns it. Fifty years later, Walter Gersdorff, the widow's son, who was eleven years old in the spring of 1938, discovers the carefully hidden diary the boarder had kept during his stay, even though he should never have written any of its contents down. What Walter finds is a scathing chronicle of one the most tumultuous years in German history, narrated by a secret agent on a deadly mission. Josef Hofmann was not the returned Argentinian immigrant he'd said he was-he was a communist spy under Moscow's command to try to reconnect with any remnants of Germany's suppressed communist party. Hofmann's bosses believe the common workers are the only way to stop the German war machine from within. Posing as a railroad man, Hofmann sets out on his game of "Russian roulette," approaching Hamm's ex-party members one at a time and delicately feeling out their allegiances. He always knew his mission would most likely end in his death, and he was satisfied to make that sacrifice for the revolution if it could help stop Hitler and his abominable ideology. But as he grows close to the Gersdorffs, accidentally stepping into the role of the father Walter never had, Hofmann begins to wish for another kind of hope in his life.

About David Downing

David Downing grew up in suburban London. He is the author of the Jack McColl novels, the thriller The Red Eagles, and six books in the John Russell espionage series, set in WWII Berlin.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ellie on August 07, 2019

I haven’t come across too many historical fiction books that are told from a Comintern rep’s perspective, so I was definitely intrigued by the premise. It’s not an action-packed type of thriller, and that was perhaps the best part about it (I was afraid it could turn into one and I’m more of a fan o......more

Goodreads review by Marc on May 30, 2020

This absorbing novel is structured as a series of entries in a 1938 diary secretly maintained by Josef Hofmann, a Comintern agent sent to Germany on an espionage mission: to organize a cell that could be employed to perform sabotage operations against the Nazis. Hofmann has returned to Germany, wher......more

Goodreads review by Jerry on July 29, 2019

This novel asks the question that, for any citizen of any country, for any citizen of the world-What do I do? Do I blindly follow a leader who promises the world, whose tools are hatred, bigotry, nationalism, fear, and murder? Do I resist, courting accusations of treason, unemployment, imprisonment......more

Goodreads review by Ben on November 02, 2022

The diary format is so contrived, and so little happens. I couldn't enjoy this.......more