Leaving Berlin, Kanon - B

                                                This is the seventh novel by this book publishing executive turned author.  All are set during WW2 or in its immediate aftermath.  This one takes place in Berlin during the airlift in early 1949.  The plot gets overly complex, if not contrived at times, but offers some insight into an interesting aspect of E. Germany.  The Soviets and Germans tried hard to repatriate famous people who had opposed the Nazis and left.  The most famous was Bertold Brecht, who is an important character in this book.  The problem with anyone who returned to communism from the west or, God forbid, America is of course that they couldn't be trusted.  As this book emphasizes, totalitarianism from the east is no better than home-grown Nazism.