The Good German, Joseph Kanon
The Good German, Joseph Kanon
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The Good German

Author: Joseph Kanon

Narrator: Stanley Tucci

Abridged: 6 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/2001


Synopsis

Set in Berlin just after the end of World War II, a brilliant thriller that was also made into a film starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett.

With World War II finally ending, Jake Geismar, former Berlin correspondent for CBS, has wrangled one of the coveted press slots for the Potsdam Conference. His assignment: a series of articles on the Allied occupation. His personal agenda: to find Lena, the German mistress he left behind at the outbreak of the war.

When Jake stumbles on a murder -- an American soldier washes up on the conference grounds -- he thinks he has found the key that will unlock his Berlin story. What Jake finds instead is a larger story of corruption and intrigue reaching deep into the heart of the occupation. Berlin in July 1945 is like nowhere else -- a tragedy, and a feverish party after the end of the world.

As Jake searches the ruins for Lena, he discovers that years of war have led to unimaginable displacement and degradation. As he hunts for the soldier's killer, he learns that Berlin has become a city of secrets, a lunar landscape that seethes with social and political tension. When the two searches become entangled, Jake comes to understand that the American Military Government is already fighting a new enemy in the east, busily identifying the "good Germans" who can help win the next war. And hanging over everything is the larger crime, a crime so huge that it seems -- the worst irony -- beyond punishment.

At once a murder mystery, a moving love story, and a riveting portrait of a unique time and place, The Good German is a historical thriller of the first rank.

About Joseph Kanon

Joseph Kanon is the Edgar Award–winning author of Los Alamos and nine other novels: The Prodigal SpyAlibiStardustIstanbul PassageLeaving BerlinDefectorsThe AccompliceThe Berlin Exchange, and The Good German, which was made into a major motion picture starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. Other awards include the Hammett Award of the International Association of Crime Writers and the Human Writes Award of the Anne Frank Foundation. He lives in New York City.

About Stanley Tucci

Stanley Tucci is an actor, writer, director, and producer. He has directed five films and appeared in over seventy films, countless television shows, and a dozen plays on and off Broadway. He has been nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony, and a spoken word Grammy; is a winner of two Golden Globes and six Emmys; and has received numerous other critical and professional awards and accolades. A lover of all things culinary, Stanley wrote and directed Big Night, the critically acclaimed movie about two brothers running a failing restaurant, starred in Julie & Julia, and is the host of three-time Emmy winning Searching for Italy. He is the author of Taste: My Life Through Food and two cookbooks, The Tucci Table and The Tucci Cookbook.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jenna on September 05, 2012

I kept reading for so long wanting to like this book. There are two main problems, though. The first is that there's way too much dialogue. Everyone has to explain everything to everyone else. Blah. And then Kanon thinks he's being edgy by writing in a bunch of short sentence fragments. Blah. The se......more

Goodreads review by Lewis on November 24, 2012

The Good German is a thrilling historical mystery, with a gripping underlying psychological exploration. Kanon presents the struggle for German rocket scientists, Americans versus Russians, with both sides desperate to enhance their own post-war technology and neither concerned about the Nazi past a......more

Goodreads review by Mike on March 01, 2025

My 4th book by this Author. Probably for me the most complicated to read as many characters. Set in Berlin in July and August of 1945. The Nazi’s defeated. Japan still fighting. Jake Geismar an American journalist returns to the city to find the woman he used to live with. He also comes across the bo......more

Goodreads review by Todd on June 09, 2015

Falls a good editor short of "Worth my time" status. Involved and overlong mystery set in immediately post-war Berlin in 1945 has too many intricate subplots (and subsequent false-ending resolutions) to sustain edge-of-seat emotional levels all the way through, and the great emotional impact of the......more

Goodreads review by Atishay on May 10, 2012

The days surrounding the fall of the Third Reich have never failed to generate an interest among historians and romantics alike. So was the case with me when I picked this book up during a random search in a forgettable old book sale. Sold to me at a half price or probably lesser than that, I kept t......more