Ben Fergusson Boeken

"For eighteen-year-old Ralf living in West Berlin, the summer of 1989 opens up a whole new world. He and his three best friends have finished school for ever and are living in a golden few months before the next stage of their adult life begins. But the old tensions of East and West come closer to home when Ralf makes some unsettling discoveries about his mother, alongside confronting his own sexuality. Forced to make choices about which side he is on, Ralf becomes caught up in a web of lies, deceit and confusion. Who can he really trust?"--Provided by publisher.

Gripping historical fiction from the prize-winning author of The Spring of Kasper Meier

Perfect for fans of Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada and The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Simon Mawer - tightly plotted, emotionally gripping and a brilliant sense of place and period. 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. Even other people. 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 is prepared for this. Kasper has secrets, she knows them, and she'll use them to get what she wants. As the threats against him mount, Kasper is drawn into a world of intrigue he could never have anticipated. Why is Eva so insistent that he find the pilot? Who is the shadowy Frau Beckmann and what is her hold over Eva? Under constant surveillance, Kasper navigates the dangerous streets and secrets of a city still reeling from the horrors of war and defeat. 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 - while at the same time trying to save himself, his father and Eva.

A story of adoption, queer parenting and gender expectations around family roles.

'A book to love and cherish' Deborah Levy, author of The Cost of Living 'A beautiful writer and, just as important, a beautiful thinker' Hanya Yanagihara, author of A Little Life 'Friendship is, in fact, as much the topic of this book as aloneness' Sarah Bakewell, Guardian At no time before have so many people lived alone, and never has loneliness been so widely or keenly felt. Why, in a society of individualists, is living alone perceived as a shameful failure? And can we ever be happy on our own? 'A heartfelt memoir on being single, living alone and the existential experience of loneliness' Financial Times 'Romantic love, suggests the author, is the lone "grand narrative" to have survived seismic societal shifts in modern times . . . Hermits and intimacy, the taboo of loneliness and the consolation of friendship - all find their place in a meditation that nods to joy and adversity' Observer