Last Days in Berlin — Mark Harris

Londoner Steve, a retired professional and published fiction author in his early sixties, is on a creative journey in Berlin. Being Jewish, he harbours some ambivalence about a city he has visited many times, and even before the Berlin Wall came down, though Steve has always sought to understand its intriguingly complex and enigmatic character. With his wife's blessing, he resides alone in a rented apartment in his favoured leafy and trendy neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg. Steve feels that he now is getting to grips with the German capital's postmodern zeitgeist, revealing itself against the still echoing vibes of a turbulent 20th century history. His aim is to complete the first draft of a contemporary novel set in this enterprising, cosmopolitan, easygoing, even indulgent metropolis. But he would never have anticipated embarking on a parallel journey, a voyage of self-discovery - with two fellow passengers, two women, neither of them his wife - that could end in tragedy...Last Days in Berlin offers a unique perspective of Berlin through the eyes of a man whose own personal dilemmas seem to mirror the city's own uncertainties.