Last year I went to visit Berlin for the first time over a long weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a city that’s still so haunted by the after effects of war. Certainly there is more to this thriving city which is dynamic and fascinating in many ways but walking through the streets there are evident battle scars around every corner. Of course, it’s perfectly understandable that this would be the case because it was turned into a battlefield during WWII and then became a city literally divided by the Cold War. Given these facts it’d be virtually impossible to write about Berlin in the late 20th century without referring to the reverberating effects of these traumas.

Ben Fergusson rightly does so in both his first novel “The Spring of Kasper Meier” which describes the city soon after it was jointly occupied by the Allied powers and in his new novel “An Honest Man” which takes place in the time immediately preceding The Berlin Wall’s collapse in 1989. But these stories are filled with so many twists and surprises that they give a fascinating new perspective on this vibrant capital. He captures the lives of ordinary citizens in this shifting political landscape and focuses specifically on the lives of gay men during these periods. “An Honest Man” is centred around the life of Ralf, a teenager in Berlin with an English mother and German father. When Ralf encounters a Turkish man named Osman at a swimming pool he becomes embroiled in both a passionate love affair and a mysterious tale of espionage which completely upturns his life. It’s an utterly gripping tale of self-discovery and intrigue.

What’s often so striking reading about the lives of young people in such a politically contentious area is that the reality of its accompany tensions have become so completely normalised. Of course it seems normal to them because it’s all they’ve ever known. So for Ralf and his close group of friends who spend their summer going to the pool or watching arthouse films thrust upon them by Ralf’s cultured friend Stefan the fact of the wall’s presence is something glancingly referred to as they go about their lives preparing to go to university or pursuing their studious fascination with the natural world. The politics of it colour everything about their lives but doesn’t really impact them – until Ralf gets involved in spying on someone who may or may not be a Soviet informant. I admire how Fergusson evokes their lives fully capturing the sensory experience of this time and place.

There have been many coming of age novels written about gay men discovering their sexuality. But I appreciate how Fergusson gives a different spin describing the contoured dynamics of Ralf’s desires. He finds himself drawn to men yet he’s had a very close emotional and sexual relationship with his girlfriend Maike who is a fascinating character in her own right. He also has a strong platonic friendship with Stefan. But when Ralf finds a sexual connection with Osman the author evocatively describes the all-consuming freedom and heated passion of their relationship. It immediately overturns all the homophobic sentiments Ralf had previously expressed for a newfound acceptance of himself. Of course, this liberation doesn’t instantly make him into an entirely good person. The fact that Ralf is something of a dick (as his actions are frequently described throughout the novel) adds to the way he feels fully rounded and, like most teenagers, often more preoccupied with his own interests rather than the feelings of those closest to him.

I recall watching news footage of The Berlin Wall’s destruction when I was a child in 1989 and I remember wondering what it must have been like for all those people who finally didn’t have to live with this immense physical and political barrier any longer. So it was thrilling when the reality of this event is described in a climatic scene towards the end of the novel showing all the chaos and release of emotion which accompanied this new freedom of movement. “An Honest Man” achieves what’s best about historical fiction as it makes you reconsider how the dramatic events surrounding a large-scale political upheaval had different effects upon the lives of so many people who found themselves at the centre of it. And it does so with a story that’s both thrilling and filled with sensual delights.

‘And this might have been my lasting memory of summer 1989. Even that moment I might have forgotten, recalling only my A levels and the Wall if people asked what that year had meant to me. But of course, in the end, 1989 meant neither of those things. It just meant Oz, and espionage – how grand that word sounds now – and I suppose my family and the terrible things we did.’

Covering the tumultuous period of summer-winter of 1989 in West Berlin, Ben Fergusson’s new novel centres on 18-year-old Ralf, his family and friends, and Oz, a part-time informant for the authorities who has been spying on the apartment block where Ralf’s family live. This is mostly a coming of age story, with an espionage subplot that weaves in and out of the events of Ralf and his family, before the book reaches a thrilling twist and a moving conclusion. The novel is narrated in first-person, with an older Ralf looking back on this period to understand what happened. Imagine ‘Deutschland 83’ meets ‘Call Me By Your Name’, with a little bit of ‘Stand By Me’ thrown in for good measure – that’s probably the best way I can describe the whole effect of this novel.

Ralf and his friends have just finished school – Ralf, with an English mother and German father, has been studying at an international school (hence the A-levels). His close-knit group of friends include Maike, Ralf’s erstwhile girlfriend; Stefan, his closest friend; and Petra, who has an on-off relationship with Stefan. Together they have forged tight bonds, but as the summer of 1989 unfolds these bonds start to unravel, as Ralf finds himself involved in a spying mission set for him by Oz, a 22-year old of Turkish origin, whom Ralf meets at a swimming pool but recognises from a car which has been parked outside his building for weeks. Oz is trying to find the identity of ‘Axel’, a Stasi spy that has been blackmailing leading political and military figures and who, Oz thinks, is really Ralf’s neighbour Tobias. Furthermore, Ralf finds himself torn between his love for Maike and a growing attraction to Oz. As the weeks and months go by further secrets are revealed and everything Ralf has taken for granted in his life starts to crumble:
‘I had the uneasy feeling that I was just old enough to see these things shifting for the first time, a snapshot of a much longer cycle, a split second in the inestimable history of my own deep time.’

Of course, in the background, is the fracturing of Communism and the events leading up to November 1989, when the checkpoints in Berlin were opened and the process that ultimately led to the reunification of Germany was begun. Without forcing the parallels down your throat, Fergusson manages to make the events unfolding in Ralf’s life and the wider political issues find their own threads. There are several subtle examples throughout the book of borders or edges, of something on the brink of changing: Ralf is half British and half German; he and his friends stand on the cusp of adulthood; he finds himself torn between his sexuality; and of course the Wall, which stands as a physical embodiment of the change that is to come to everyone in the novel.

I’ll be honest, when I first came to this novel, I was expecting a pretty simple spy story. Instead, what I found was a little gem of a book, with characters who came alive and clearly show a great deal of affection from the author. The various strands of the novel work in harmony, and the story of Ralf and Oz becomes more and more complicated as he – and us – start to question everyone and everything that happens. Who can we trust? Who is telling the truth? As the answers start to come and Ralf’s life explodes, the truth is shocking and the implications are massive. This is a tender, involving, beautifully written novel which draws you in and makes you care. The historical perspective is handled really well, and you truly get a sense of the teenagers in the story and their lives. It feels authentic, and is deeply moving. As I say, this was an unexpected wonder of a book, providing so much more than a simple synopsis can provide. 4.5 stars, which I’m happy to bump up to 5 simply because of the surprise of its effect on the reader. Wonderful.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

I have enjoyed Ben Fergusson’s previous novels, “The Spring of Kasper Meier,” and “The Other Hoffman Sister,” so I was delighted to receive this for review. “An Honest Man,” is set in Berlin, during the summer of 1989, when friends Ralf, Stefan, Maike and Petra, spend the time hanging out and their involvement in conservation and nature; passing the time before they receive their exam results and move on to university.

Ralf is half-English and plans to go to the UK to study, which is unsettling him slightly. He thinks he will miss his girlfriend, Maike and Berlin, where he lives with his parents and brother. One day, while the friends are at the pool, Ralf meets Oz. Oz is Turkish, older, exotic and interesting. He works in a bookshop and asks questions about Tobias Rose, a neighbour of Ralf’s.

This is a slow paced novel, which is far more about the characters, and their relationships, than the plot. However, there is an espionage thread running through the novel, as Ralf becomes interested in Oz and his interest in Tobias. Also, this is very much a coming of age novel. Ralf is a teenager still, but his interest is aroused by Oz and he becomes embroiled in the other man’s investigation of his neighbour. This has a great sense of place and people. A very enjoyable literary novel, which I received from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I can't really rate this,as I only got 20% of the way through the book.
There was nothing wrong with the writing,I'm obviously just not a patient enough reader,as I felt nothing had happened.

An Honest Man is a novel about love and Cold War tensions, set in West Berlin in 1989. Ralf is eighteen and is waiting for his exam results to see if he's going to university in England. He and his friends spend their time together, enjoying the days of summer before they all part ways. When Ralf meets Oz at a swimming pool, he is intrigued by the man, and they are drawn closer as Oz reveals dangerous secrets about possible spies and divided loyalties. Suddenly Ralf must question what he knows about his family and his neighbours and who is really telling the truth.

The novel is a mix of low key Cold War drama, with the threat of people quietly spying on you, and coming of age novel, with a main character falling in love as he is about to leave home. This gives it a real focus on characters and interpersonal relationships, and it has a good level of drama and tension as well as details about German and English culture around the fall of the Wall as well as the lives of teenagers at this point. Ralf is a gripping protagonist, flawed in the way he lashes out but also sympathetic in his sense of betrayal and confusion at the situation he has been caught in. His narrative has twists and turns, and is cleverly written to withhold exactly what happens until the end.

This is historical fiction with a focus on the people and relationships, about someone growing up and falling suddenly in love whilst also dealing with the tense political and social realities of divided Berlin. The tense plot drives it forward, but it is the story of Ralf and Oz which gives it a real heart.