The Innocent

My #librarianhusband recommended this book, plus it was one of only two Ian McEwan's I haven't read and I'm having a bit of a completest moment, so I took it down from our shelves. My version was published in 2001 and quite likely my husband read it then. 'It's about spies, I think,' he said. 'In Be......more

'To innocence. And to Anglo-German co-operation.' This is what Leonard, a stuffy English engineer who has been sent to post-war, pre-wall Berlin to assist in an attempt to tap Soviet landlines, and Maria, a mysterious German divorcee who initiates him in the art of love, say to each other at their en......more

Well I guess I should’ve expected the turn in this novel, after all it is Ian Macabre but the slowish start to this spy story set in 1950’s Berlin lulled me into expecting a different sort of twist. Then I just couldn’t look away.......more

..e invece non lo è proprio per niente. Ian McEwan è uno degli scrittori della lista di coloro che vorrei conoscere meglio, ma che allo stesso tempo faccio fatica ad inquadrare. Ho già letto Espiazione che mi è piaciuto molto ma a livello intellettuale, soprattutto per i temi proposti, senza appassi......more

I wish I knew what this 1990 novel was trying to be, because as well written as the prose is, The Innocent feels all over the place. It’s a post-WWII Berlin spy novel, but it’s mostly about politics – not so much between the Russians and the west, but between Germany, the Americans, and the British.......more