The Spring of Kasper Meier: ‘Beguiling, unsettling, and wonderfully atmospheric' (Sarah Waters)
Jul 2014 · Hachette UK
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About this ebook
Fergusson has already won two awards for this gripping and atmospheric debut, a thriller set amid the rubble of a defeated Berlin in 1945...Original and highly accomplished' Sunday Times
Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 2015
Berlin, 1946. Everything is in short supply. Including the truth.
The war is over, but Berlin is a desolate sea of rubble. There is a shortage of everything: food, clothing, tobacco. The local population is scrabbling to get by. Kasper Meier is one of these Germans, and his solution is to trade on the black market to feed himself and his elderly father. He can find anything that people need, for the right price.
When a young woman, Eva, arrives at Kasper's door seeking the whereabouts of a British pilot, he feels a reluctant sympathy for her but won't interfere in military affairs. But Eva knows Kasper has secrets, and she'll use them to get what she wants. As a net of deceit, lies and betrayal falls around him, Kasper begins to understand that the seemingly random killings of members of the occupying forces are connected to his own situation. He must work out who is behind Eva's demands, and why...
A gripping literary thriller that will captivate fans of Joseph Kanon and Hans Fallada.
Readers are saying:
'A remarkable, dark, deep and disturbing novel'
'Brilliantly realised both in the evocation of Berlin and in the story line. Both poignant and thrilling'
'What an amazing book - I was engrossed'
'A terrific novel. Thoughtful, powerful writing serving an original and compelling plot'
'Utterly enthralling'
Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 2015
Berlin, 1946. Everything is in short supply. Including the truth.
The war is over, but Berlin is a desolate sea of rubble. There is a shortage of everything: food, clothing, tobacco. The local population is scrabbling to get by. Kasper Meier is one of these Germans, and his solution is to trade on the black market to feed himself and his elderly father. He can find anything that people need, for the right price.
When a young woman, Eva, arrives at Kasper's door seeking the whereabouts of a British pilot, he feels a reluctant sympathy for her but won't interfere in military affairs. But Eva knows Kasper has secrets, and she'll use them to get what she wants. As a net of deceit, lies and betrayal falls around him, Kasper begins to understand that the seemingly random killings of members of the occupying forces are connected to his own situation. He must work out who is behind Eva's demands, and why...
A gripping literary thriller that will captivate fans of Joseph Kanon and Hans Fallada.
Readers are saying:
'A remarkable, dark, deep and disturbing novel'
'Brilliantly realised both in the evocation of Berlin and in the story line. Both poignant and thrilling'
'What an amazing book - I was engrossed'
'A terrific novel. Thoughtful, powerful writing serving an original and compelling plot'
'Utterly enthralling'
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1 review
About the author
Ben Fergusson's debut novel, The Spring of Kasper Meier, was awarded the Betty Trask Prize and the HWA Debut Crown, and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. The Other Hoffmann Sister and An Honest Man complete a trilogy of novels set in the same apartment block in Berlin at key moments in the city's twentieth-century history. His short fiction has been published in journals internationally and in 2020 he won the Seán O'Faoláin International Short Story Prize. He also translates from German, winning a 2020 Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation. Ben lives in Berlin with his husband and son.
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