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Berlin Trilogy #3
The Second Son
An Intriguing Historical Thriller Set in the Barcelona of the Spanish Civil WarOn the eve of Hitler's Olympics, Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner, a half Jew, has been forced out of the Kriminalpolizei. Luckily, Hoffner's focus is elsewhere. His son Georg is missing in Spain, swept up in the sudden outbreak of the civil war. He has already lost Sascha, his elder son, who is fully entrenched in the Nazi regime. But Georg is not what he appears to be, and when Hoffner discovers this, he is determined to save the one son he can.The Second Son is the eagerly awaited final installment in Jonathan Rabb's Berlin trilogy, set between the two world wars. In Harper's Magazine, John Leonard called the first, Rosa, "a ghostly noir that could have been conspired at by Raymond Chandler and André Malraux." The second, Shadow and Light (2009), garnered rave reviews—in The Washington Post, Wendy Smith praised its "atmosphere" and "brilliantly plotted narrative." Now, nearly ten years after the events of Shadow and Light, Hoffner finds himself tossed into the chaos that is Spain— where he quickly meets anarchists, Soviet and British secret agents, and a female doctor called Mila Pera—as he follows a trail of clues left by Georg.Jonathan Rabb delivers another atmospheric work, rich with his storytelling talent and historical expertise.
308 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 15, 2011
19 people are currently reading
457 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Rabb
15 books120 followersJonathan Rabb grew up knowing he would be an academic. The son and grandson (on both sides) of historians, Rabb’s world shook at its very core when he opted to try his hand at political theory. As an undergraduate at Yale, Rabb divided his time among Locke and Hobbes and Hegel while spending his more reckless hours singing with the Whiffenpoofs and galloping across stage in such roles as Harry the Horse and a perfectly bean-poled Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. He even went so far as to make his living his first years out of college as an actor in New York before settling on a PhD program at Columbia.
Somehow, though, that was not to be. While in Germany researching the very compelling and very obscure seventeenth-century theorist Samuel von Pufendorf (Whiffenpoof on Pufendorf), Rabb got the idea for a thriller in which a young professor at Columbia gets caught up in a vast conspiracy predicated on deciphering a centuries-old manuscript, a response to Machiavelli’s The Prince. Suddenly theater and history had come together in the form of historical fiction and, leaving his Fulbright and academia behind, Rabb spent the next two years teaching test prep and writing furiously.
In 1998, his first novel, The Overseer, reached bookshelves, followed three years later by The Book of Q—another historical thriller—and his marriage to Andra Reeve, the director of prime time casting at CBS television. Having discovered a new kind of bliss in his private life, Rabb decided it was time to dive into the decay and despair of Berlin between the wars. He set to work on what would be the first in his Berlin Trilogy, Rosa, and also began to teach fiction at the 92nd Street Y. In July 2004 his wife had twins, and for the next two years, while writing and researching Shadow and Light, Rabb became their primary caretaker. Somehow, they continued to grow and flourish, and Shadow and Light found its way to the page.
Rabb is now deep into the final book of the trilogy, and still finds time to perform Gilbert and Sullivan with the Blue Hill Troupe of New York, the Harrisburg Symphony, and anyone else willing to indulge his love of Patter roles. This fall, Rabb started teaching in the NYU Creative Writing Program and continues to write reviews for Opera News and essays for the series I Wish I’d Been There.
Somehow, though, that was not to be. While in Germany researching the very compelling and very obscure seventeenth-century theorist Samuel von Pufendorf (Whiffenpoof on Pufendorf), Rabb got the idea for a thriller in which a young professor at Columbia gets caught up in a vast conspiracy predicated on deciphering a centuries-old manuscript, a response to Machiavelli’s The Prince. Suddenly theater and history had come together in the form of historical fiction and, leaving his Fulbright and academia behind, Rabb spent the next two years teaching test prep and writing furiously.
In 1998, his first novel, The Overseer, reached bookshelves, followed three years later by The Book of Q—another historical thriller—and his marriage to Andra Reeve, the director of prime time casting at CBS television. Having discovered a new kind of bliss in his private life, Rabb decided it was time to dive into the decay and despair of Berlin between the wars. He set to work on what would be the first in his Berlin Trilogy, Rosa, and also began to teach fiction at the 92nd Street Y. In July 2004 his wife had twins, and for the next two years, while writing and researching Shadow and Light, Rabb became their primary caretaker. Somehow, they continued to grow and flourish, and Shadow and Light found its way to the page.
Rabb is now deep into the final book of the trilogy, and still finds time to perform Gilbert and Sullivan with the Blue Hill Troupe of New York, the Harrisburg Symphony, and anyone else willing to indulge his love of Patter roles. This fall, Rabb started teaching in the NYU Creative Writing Program and continues to write reviews for Opera News and essays for the series I Wish I’d Been There.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
May 19, 2022
Ten years have gone by and the book opens with young Georg Hoffner, the eponymous second son, in Barcelona. He is filming newsreels for a British company on location to help tell the story of some German dissident athletes who want to participate in Berlin's Olympics. And then shooting breaks out and the Spanish Civil War begins.
Back in Berlin, Nikolai Hoffner is quietly removed from the police force because he is half-Jewish. Because he has served the organization for nearly 30 years, he is given full pension. Hoffner accepts the dismissal and is, perhaps, even relieved. He is worried that days have gone by and there have been no letters from Georg. Is he even still alive? Hoffner arranges with his underworld friends to take an airplane to Barcelona and try to find Georg.
I learned more about the Spanish Civil War than I'd known before and still nothing makes sense. Maybe that is more due to my observation that two political systems which are anti-freedom don't seem all that much different to me and so am uncertain why they would bother going to war against each other. Oh, of course - it's all about power, not about ideals. At least at the top it's definitely about power whereas the little guys are passionate about their ideals and willing - too willing - to die for them.
Rabb's writing style appeals to me. His characterization of Nikolai Hoffner is superb, as is his depiction of the period. The first two in the series were post-WWI Berlin and then Berlin pre-Hitler. Rabb's research was obviously thorough and he was able to give us more than a hint of both a sense of place and time. He has other stand alone novels and I look forward to them. This, however, was not my favorite of the trilogy, though still a solid 4-stars.
Back in Berlin, Nikolai Hoffner is quietly removed from the police force because he is half-Jewish. Because he has served the organization for nearly 30 years, he is given full pension. Hoffner accepts the dismissal and is, perhaps, even relieved. He is worried that days have gone by and there have been no letters from Georg. Is he even still alive? Hoffner arranges with his underworld friends to take an airplane to Barcelona and try to find Georg.
I learned more about the Spanish Civil War than I'd known before and still nothing makes sense. Maybe that is more due to my observation that two political systems which are anti-freedom don't seem all that much different to me and so am uncertain why they would bother going to war against each other. Oh, of course - it's all about power, not about ideals. At least at the top it's definitely about power whereas the little guys are passionate about their ideals and willing - too willing - to die for them.
Rabb's writing style appeals to me. His characterization of Nikolai Hoffner is superb, as is his depiction of the period. The first two in the series were post-WWI Berlin and then Berlin pre-Hitler. Rabb's research was obviously thorough and he was able to give us more than a hint of both a sense of place and time. He has other stand alone novels and I look forward to them. This, however, was not my favorite of the trilogy, though still a solid 4-stars.
February 8, 2014
The weakest of the the trilogy. The first two, though especially the first, Rosa, were top notch. Shadow and Light was also great. But once you take the main character, Hoffner, out of Germany, something is lost. Weimar and pre-Nazi Berlin was a great character in the first two books and while letting the third act play out in Germany might seem like it would have been too easy, I still missed the location. One note about Rabb's writing style - he is good, though sometimes there is a density to it that seems uninviting.
December 16, 2020
Too perfect for words.
March 13, 2011
I liked Rabb's Shadow and Light a lot, wish I could say the same about Second Son. The first half of the book was simply too wordy and although the second half was better it was not enough to save it for me. I did not feel that the story was tightly drawn and the motivation of some of the characters escaped me. We've got Rebus and Renko - perhaps that's enough old detectives.
September 21, 2021
Late in July 1936, the Western world looked to Berlin, where the 1936 Summer Olympics was underway. The might and pageantry of Nazi Germany was on display. But 900 miles away by train in Barcelona a different spectacle was unfolding. As the opening shots were fired in the Spanish Civil War, Communists and anarchists were gathering to celebrate the People’s Olympiad in protest against the official event. But it never opened. The cabal of reactionary generals leading the revolt against Spain’s Republican government moved too fast. In The Second Son, novelist Jonathan Rabb conjures up all the bravado and uncertainty of the forces of the Left in Barcelona in those early days of the war. It’s a Spanish Civil War story that unfolds long before the tragic events that cement the war in memory.
A German detective searches for his son
Young Georg Hoffner is a German cinematographer on the scene in Barcelona to capture newsreel footage for a British firm. Because his grandmother was Jewish, he had been fired from UFA, the leading German film studio. Back in Berlin, his father, Nikolai Hoffner, a Chief Inspector of the Kripo, or Kriminalpolizei, is finally being forced into retirement. In Nazi ideology, Nikolai is half-Jewish and unemployable in such a sensitive post. And all this despite the fact that Georg’s big brother, Alexander (“Sascha”), is a rising star in the SS. The Second Son is the story of these three men as their paths intersect against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.
A perilous journey across war-torn Spain
When word reaches him in Berlin that Georg has gone missing, sixty-two-year-old Nikolai sets out for Spain. Through his contacts in the criminal underground, he secures passage by air on a smuggler’s plane. Nikolai arrives in Barcelona in the early days of the fighting. The anarchist forces controlling the city and its environs in Catalonia are triumphant in the opening days of the conflict. But fascist army units are closing in. They had already seized many strategic points to the west and south. And when Nikolai learns that Georg has left Barcelona for the west, he sets out on a perilous journey, bluffing his way from town to town. He will, in the end, become embroiled in the espionage war between Germany and England and encounter both his sons. But the circumstances will not be what either he—or the reader—expects.
Unfortunately, The Second Son doesn’t quite succeed either as a detective story or a spy thriller. In Spain, Nikolai wanders far from the criminal precincts of Berlin where he had made his reputation. His journey from town to town becomes tedious. And, even though he is (unwittingly) acting as a spy for the British, espionage comes across as merely a theme in the background. Rabb writes well, however, and the novel captures the attention for its portrayal of Spain in the very earliest days of its civil war.
The prelude to World War II
The Spanish Civil War (1936-39) is widely viewed as the testing-ground for World War II in Europe. Hitler sent in armored units as well as aircraft, pilots, and advanced weaponry to the fascist forces under General Francisco Franco. At Hitler’s bidding, Mussolini dispatched tens of thousands of combat troops. And the Soviet Union under Stalin supported the Communist forces that played a central role in the Republican cause. But large-scale foreign intervention lay in the future in the summer of 1936. Franco’s forces were trapped in Morocco, hoping for a way across the Mediterranean. And the Germans were struggling to smuggle weapons into the scattered rebel troops within the country. Nikolai Hoffner’s troubled journey across Spain in The Second Son revolves around those facts, as he travels from one point to the next on the Nazis’ clandestine arms smuggling network.
About the author
Jonathan Rabb (1964-) is the author of five historical thrillers, including three that feature Detective Inspector Nikolai Hoffner of the Berlin Kriminalpolizei. He gained degrees in political science from Yale University and political theory from Columbia University. After teaching at Columbia, NYU, and the 92nd Street Y, he joined the faculty of the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he now teaches writing.
A German detective searches for his son
Young Georg Hoffner is a German cinematographer on the scene in Barcelona to capture newsreel footage for a British firm. Because his grandmother was Jewish, he had been fired from UFA, the leading German film studio. Back in Berlin, his father, Nikolai Hoffner, a Chief Inspector of the Kripo, or Kriminalpolizei, is finally being forced into retirement. In Nazi ideology, Nikolai is half-Jewish and unemployable in such a sensitive post. And all this despite the fact that Georg’s big brother, Alexander (“Sascha”), is a rising star in the SS. The Second Son is the story of these three men as their paths intersect against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.
A perilous journey across war-torn Spain
When word reaches him in Berlin that Georg has gone missing, sixty-two-year-old Nikolai sets out for Spain. Through his contacts in the criminal underground, he secures passage by air on a smuggler’s plane. Nikolai arrives in Barcelona in the early days of the fighting. The anarchist forces controlling the city and its environs in Catalonia are triumphant in the opening days of the conflict. But fascist army units are closing in. They had already seized many strategic points to the west and south. And when Nikolai learns that Georg has left Barcelona for the west, he sets out on a perilous journey, bluffing his way from town to town. He will, in the end, become embroiled in the espionage war between Germany and England and encounter both his sons. But the circumstances will not be what either he—or the reader—expects.
Unfortunately, The Second Son doesn’t quite succeed either as a detective story or a spy thriller. In Spain, Nikolai wanders far from the criminal precincts of Berlin where he had made his reputation. His journey from town to town becomes tedious. And, even though he is (unwittingly) acting as a spy for the British, espionage comes across as merely a theme in the background. Rabb writes well, however, and the novel captures the attention for its portrayal of Spain in the very earliest days of its civil war.
The prelude to World War II
The Spanish Civil War (1936-39) is widely viewed as the testing-ground for World War II in Europe. Hitler sent in armored units as well as aircraft, pilots, and advanced weaponry to the fascist forces under General Francisco Franco. At Hitler’s bidding, Mussolini dispatched tens of thousands of combat troops. And the Soviet Union under Stalin supported the Communist forces that played a central role in the Republican cause. But large-scale foreign intervention lay in the future in the summer of 1936. Franco’s forces were trapped in Morocco, hoping for a way across the Mediterranean. And the Germans were struggling to smuggle weapons into the scattered rebel troops within the country. Nikolai Hoffner’s troubled journey across Spain in The Second Son revolves around those facts, as he travels from one point to the next on the Nazis’ clandestine arms smuggling network.
About the author
Jonathan Rabb (1964-) is the author of five historical thrillers, including three that feature Detective Inspector Nikolai Hoffner of the Berlin Kriminalpolizei. He gained degrees in political science from Yale University and political theory from Columbia University. After teaching at Columbia, NYU, and the 92nd Street Y, he joined the faculty of the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he now teaches writing.
April 7, 2011
The Realm of History’s Minute Details
The Second Son, by Jonathan Rabb
If I were to imagine a book with a dose of Raymond Chandler, sprinkled liberally with Hemingway and seasoned lightly with Joseph Conrad and the Bible, it would be Rabb’s The Second Son. This, the third of a trilogy Rabb has written, takes place in Germany and Spain during the lull between the world wars. Germany is quickly becoming Nazi-fied and Spain is in the midst of a civil war between the socialist/communist bloc and Franco’s fascists. The historical thrust of the story is soon-to-be-Nazi Germany’s efforts to supply arms to Franco’s minions in the midst of a slowly stalemating war.
Rabb’s literary device is to create a German policeman who is part Jew by heritage (although his cultural and religious heritage matter not a whit to him). This policeman, Nikolai Hoffner, soon loses his long-standing career and goes to Spain in search of his son, Georg. Hoffner has another son, Sascha, who has bought into National Socialism, and is in fact a member of the SS.
Georg has been leaving clues to his own political pursuits in Spain, namely an effort to lay bare Germany’s role in furnishing arms to Franco. Along the way, Nikolai meets a doctor, a woman, Mila, with whom Nikolai falls in love as they travel in search of Georg, and finally, Sascha.
The book begins all too slow for the genre, in this reader’s estimation, but Rabb does use the first fifty pages or so to set the historical stage and to set his characters within that stage. As with many books of fiction, the writing improves greatly as the story moves along. His characters are compelling and closely drawn, and the details of place and time easily drew me to them. Other than a few physical quirks the author assigns to Nikolai, for no apparent reason, nor to any particular end, this is an excellent read by a writer in command of history, story, and characters.
Rabb’s research here is excellent, and his writing proves once more the value of fiction in the realm of the minute, sometimes everyday details that historians always seem to gloss over.
August 4, 2014
Im dritten Band seiner Berlin-Trilogie schickt Jonathan Rabb seinen Ermittler Nikolai Hoffner auf der Suche nach seinem vermissten jüngeren Sohn nach Spanien, wo Georgi als Kameramann unterwegs ist. Emigranten und Revolutionäre haben in Spanien alternative Olympische Spiele für Gegner des Nationalsozialismus organisiert als Gegenveranstaltung zur pompösen Inszenierung der offiziellen Spiele in Berlin 1936. Georgi Hoffner war offiziell als Reporter unterwegs, aber in jenen aufregenden Zeiten musste man ebenso an inoffizielle Aufträge von Geheimdiensten denken. Vater Hoffner soll in Berlin aus seiner Stelle als Kriminalkommissar gedrängt werden, nachdem Kripo und Gestapo zur neuen linientreuen Sipo zusammengeschlossen worden sind. „Technisch gesehen“, wie Hoffner so schön sagt, ist er Jude und damit im Nationalsozialismus nicht für den öffentlichen Dienst geeignet. Hoffners Mutter war erst nach seiner Geburt zum Christentum übergetreten. In einer selbstmörderischen Odyssee sucht Hoffner in Spanien seinen Sohn zwischen Sozialisten, Flüchtlingen, Revolutionären und Agenten – und damit zwischen allen Fronten. Falls er aus Spanien nicht zurückkehren sollte, werden ihm die neuen Herren innerhalb der Polizei keine Träne nachweinen.
Jonathan Rabb hat den historischen Hintergrund sorgfältig recherchiert und versteht es, dem Volk aufs Maul zuschauen. Dabei scheint in diesem Band der Weg das Ziel zu sein, so dass Hoffner möglichst viele Abenteuer erleben kann. Der dritte Band ist jedoch wieder nicht frei von Fehlern in Eigennamen, deutschen Begriffen und von verwirrenden englischsprachigen Diensträngen, die Deutschen in Dialogen in den Mund gelegt werden. So waren Siemens & Halske meines Wissens nie zwei Unternehmen, sondern beide Herren waren Inhaber.
Jonathan Rabb hat den historischen Hintergrund sorgfältig recherchiert und versteht es, dem Volk aufs Maul zuschauen. Dabei scheint in diesem Band der Weg das Ziel zu sein, so dass Hoffner möglichst viele Abenteuer erleben kann. Der dritte Band ist jedoch wieder nicht frei von Fehlern in Eigennamen, deutschen Begriffen und von verwirrenden englischsprachigen Diensträngen, die Deutschen in Dialogen in den Mund gelegt werden. So waren Siemens & Halske meines Wissens nie zwei Unternehmen, sondern beide Herren waren Inhaber.
July 19, 2013
The Second Son is the final part of Jonathan Rabb's Berlin trilogy featuring the tough and cynical detective Nickolai Hoffner. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these books, the first, Rosa, is set in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. The second, Shadow and Light, is set in the late 1920s and the narrative of this novel takes place during the early stages of the Spanish Civil War.
I found the first novel difficult to follow at times but got the hang of it eventually. The second was brilliant and the third outstanding and deeply moving. By 1936, Hoffner is out of the police, his Jewish heritage having put paid to his career. He sets off to Spain to search for his youngest son who is working as a cameraman for Pathe.
Rabb captures all of the excitement, confusion and violence of the Spanish Civil War exceptionally well. Not for the first time, we understand why the Republicans (the legitimately elected government)never won, such was the degree of lack of co-operation and understanding between the various factions on the socialist side.
The characters are very-well drawn and the tale tragically credible. Whenever you meet a fascist you can smell the creeping influence of Nazi evil, although Hitler's murderers were not, in the very early stages of the war, too heavily involved.
The Second Son is a complex tale but well worth reading.
David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil. (thebluepencil.co.uk)
davidlowtherblog.wordpress.com
I found the first novel difficult to follow at times but got the hang of it eventually. The second was brilliant and the third outstanding and deeply moving. By 1936, Hoffner is out of the police, his Jewish heritage having put paid to his career. He sets off to Spain to search for his youngest son who is working as a cameraman for Pathe.
Rabb captures all of the excitement, confusion and violence of the Spanish Civil War exceptionally well. Not for the first time, we understand why the Republicans (the legitimately elected government)never won, such was the degree of lack of co-operation and understanding between the various factions on the socialist side.
The characters are very-well drawn and the tale tragically credible. Whenever you meet a fascist you can smell the creeping influence of Nazi evil, although Hitler's murderers were not, in the very early stages of the war, too heavily involved.
The Second Son is a complex tale but well worth reading.
David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil. (thebluepencil.co.uk)
davidlowtherblog.wordpress.com
May 13, 2017
Very interesting story, well told, and with many details about a family caught up in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. Nikolai Hoffner has been in two previous books, but this is not so much a detective novel as it is a personal quest. Hoffner's days as a policeman are over in 1936 Berlin. As a half Jew, even on with a distinguished career in the police, he is witnessing the Nazification of his beloved Berlin. One of his sons is involved with the Nazis, hiding his Jewish name and roots. The second son has gone to Spain, as a journalist for a English newsreel company and Hoffner goes to Barcelona in August of 1936 to bring him home. The unraveling of finding him in the midst of Anarchist revolution and Fascist counterrevolution as Hoffner crosses a Spain in chaos makes the story line move along. His love interest is a Spanish doctor and she joins him in his journey. Their adventures are well told and I enjoyed this book. You don't have to read the other two books to enjoy this one. I love this era, where the forces of good and evil are obvious to almost everyone.
March 4, 2013
As I said in my review of the second book in this trilogy, becoming familiar with the numerous characters and, actually, Berlin itself made for an easier and more satisfying read. Now Mr. Rabb has picked us up and, not only moved us to mostly new characters and a new country in revolutionary Spain. Like the first two books, he seems to equate confusing geographical locations with plot. The excellent story line is actually buried by the constant new locations and characters. Before Mr. Rabb's mysteries will be a real success for me, he needs to rely on story twists, not new places.
To top it off, after three books of this flawed character whose life is a tragedy, it has a happy ending. All that being said, these books haunt me, and it's hard to let go of Hoffner. If you like the first two, you'll be compelled to read the third.
To top it off, after three books of this flawed character whose life is a tragedy, it has a happy ending. All that being said, these books haunt me, and it's hard to let go of Hoffner. If you like the first two, you'll be compelled to read the third.
December 10, 2013
This has been a great trilogy. The detective/thriller action of this series is in glorious service to the historical intent: to show the rise of fascism in Germany and Europe prior to World War II. In this last installment the action has moved from Berlin to Spain during the civil war. Nikolai has gone to Barcelona to find his younger son Georg, a photo-journalist who has gone missing. The civil war in Spain is a rehearsal for WWII and Rabb does not stint on the blood and tragedy. My only cavil with this is the Hemingway-esque perfection of the Nikolai character. He's always been amazing, but may be a little over the top here. I also miss the Berlin setting, but as Nikolai realizes, Berlin as he knew it, is dead.
April 16, 2012
I like Jonathan Rabb and have like the other two books of this trilogy - ha! I did NOT know it was a trilogy until I read it in this blurb - trilogy in that Nikolai Hoffman is the continuing character.
This novel is set in Spain and that was the piece that took me out of it. Whew. I have no context for that conflict and Mr. Rabb didn't help me here - chaos all the way for me in following and appreciating who is in which camp, so to speak. I never realized how much of a difference that does make - not really understanding the context, in a book like this that depends so much on the characters MANAGING that context. None the less, always well written and quite a satisfying story and ending...it just took a lot for me to stay w/all this 'rain' in Spain.
This novel is set in Spain and that was the piece that took me out of it. Whew. I have no context for that conflict and Mr. Rabb didn't help me here - chaos all the way for me in following and appreciating who is in which camp, so to speak. I never realized how much of a difference that does make - not really understanding the context, in a book like this that depends so much on the characters MANAGING that context. None the less, always well written and quite a satisfying story and ending...it just took a lot for me to stay w/all this 'rain' in Spain.
April 21, 2013
I am always interested in books about the Spanish Civil War. This book is set just as the War begins, before people realize the tragedy about the take place. The story is - to me - improbable as it centers on Raab's German policeman who goes to Spain in search of his son. Suddenly, Hoffner's Jewish mother comes to haunt him - and his son who has fully embraced his Judaism by marrying a Jewish woman. So Hoffner goes to Spain to find his son, who may be a photographer,or may be a British spy. All seemed pretty unlikely and convoluted to me, as was the love story. But the descriptions of Spain at the beginning of the War are very gripping, as is the description of the increasing violence.
November 11, 2015
There are many mixed reviews of this novel around, but I enjoyed it. More serious than Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir, better plotted than Alan Furst, Rabb's half-Jewish policeman, NiKolai Hoffner, owes a debt to both. This is the third in a series and the last. I have read Rosa, the first, but not the second as yet. I did not find reading this one out of order any problem. Hoffner, removed from his job because of a Jewish ancestry he hardly recognised, travels to Spain in the throes of civil war in order to find and bring home his younger son, a war photographer. The plot builds very nicely to a heart-breaking climax. Along the way, I learnt much about 1930s Spain.
March 30, 2011
This was wonderful. I liked the first two in the trilogy very much but this one had a more human side to it - less thriller more emotional intensity. Rabb always paints vivid pictures of the places he sets his characters, and his language is equally lyrical. I'm not sure how to situate it in a genre. It's not a police procedural, although there are elements of that in the book. It's not a thriller although that's there, too. It's just a great read.
June 21, 2012
Nikolai Hoffner, a brillant chief inspector of the Kriminalpolizei is forced out by the Nazi government because he is partly Jewish. His youngest son, Georg is a photo journalist working in Spain during their civil war. Nikolai, having lost his eldest son, Sascha to the Nazi regime decides to go to Spain to track down and bring Georg home. There are parts of the story that are so enigmatic that it is difficult to know who the 'bad guys' are. I lost interest.
June 1, 2013
This is really good--if you are a big history buff. It gives an inside look at chaos of the Spanish Civil War and the hands-off/interference of other countries while half-Jewish, retired police officer Nicholai Hoffner leaves Nazi Berlin to rescue his second son, a photographer in Spain. His personal story against that backdrop is as chaotic as the journey through various areas of Spain.
March 23, 2011
I enjoyed plot twists and the intelligence of the main character who is putting together the pieces of a puzzle. I did not know much about the setting or time in history. Some of it I glossed over, but I definitely learned something about the Spanish Civil War.
May 9, 2012
Well written as usual from Mr. Rabb, but the plot just wasn't all that engaging. The characters along the way were moderately interesting at best. His ability to develop Hoffner's personal story was the book's saving grace, and kept me from stopping halfway thru.
March 24, 2015
1. You do have to read Rosa and Shadow and Light for this to make any sense in terms of plot.
2. If you don't (why don't you? They're both excellent novels), it will still be a good read because of the Spanish Civil War atmosphere and the quality of the writing.
2. If you don't (why don't you? They're both excellent novels), it will still be a good read because of the Spanish Civil War atmosphere and the quality of the writing.
July 27, 2015
The trilogy of Hoffer really made him a living person whose story was told beautifully. Glad I started & finished these 3 books.
December 27, 2015
Cryptic but fascinating. Of course, the cryptic part might have been avoided by reading the preceding 2 books in the trilogy first - a deficit I shall remedy at the earliest opportunity.
December 29, 2015
When it concludes "The Berlin Trilogy", stick with your strength: don't shift to the Spanish Civil War.
February 9, 2017
Quite good...I think the first book in the series is better
November 9, 2019
Nikolai Hoffner is a Jew working in Berlin as a detective but he is retiring. His official title is Kriminal Oberkommisar Nikolai Hoffner but the title becomes meaningless once he gets to Barcelona, looking for his son, Georg. Georg is in Barcelona to shepherd guns to a faction in the upcoming Spanish Civil War. But he goes missing so Nikolai goes to Spain to look for him. That much is clear. The rest of the novel gets to be a muddle as fascists, nationalists, anarchists, communists and Nazis get all jumbled up in the narrative of what is effectively one man’s search for his son. There is another son, Sascha, who, angered by his father’s political views, has disappeared, but the “second son” doesn’t factor in many of the episodes in the novel. Not until its conclusion. Along the way, Hoffner, with a wife and small son behind in Berlin, meets a doctor, Mila, much younger than him and, as things go in such novels, ravishingly beautiful. The two hook up and begin to travel together in the attempt to find Georg, a newsreel photographer for Pathé News, allegedly. Mia and Nikolai get all tangled up with the various factions that are destined to fight, each looking for weapons or ways to get them and saved only by their seemingly indestructible “papers” that get them through endless roadblocks and checkpoints. If you know something about the Spanish Civil War and its roots in history, you might find this novel engrossing. I found it interminable. I regret my ignorance but, unlike many fictional settings that get me inspired to learn more, this one didn’t. Back to my Nordic Noir!
November 7, 2019
Novela histórica y negra. La trama desarrolla el Berlín de comienzos del nazismo y el estallido de la guerra civil española, con espías, muerte, política y guerra. Me ha parecido un poco complicadas la historia por los dobles juegos de los protagonistas. Por lo demás, es una novela triste, con una tristeza al final, que aunque deja un poso de esperanza, no me he quitado la tristeza. La descripción de la guerra civil española me ha gustado, me parece creíble con las particularidades españolas. Además de tristeza hay dureza, pero una dureza especial, no violenta, sino una dureza triste. En conjunto, una novela que me ha gustado pero me ha dejado muy triste.
March 29, 2022
Nickolai Hoffner has been retired from the Berlin police because he is half Jewish. He has moved into the carriage house behind his son’s, Georg’s, house. There Hoffner finds some contentment with his DIL, Lotte and his grandson, Mendy. Georg has gone on assignment to Spain as a film journalist and disappears. Nickolai goes in search of him with some cryptic hints from Georg’s employer and the help of his organized crime friends just as the Spanish Civil War breaks out.
Rabb manages to make the various factions of the war clear, almost. But he has broken my heart with the conclusion of the Berlin Trilogy.
Rabb manages to make the various factions of the war clear, almost. But he has broken my heart with the conclusion of the Berlin Trilogy.
January 27, 2018
Not of the quality of Rosa as this relies too much on weak motivations, coincidences and very opaque conversations despite the fascinating setting of the early days of the Spanish Civil War. Hoffner retires from the Kripo after the discovery of his Jewish ancestry so decides to trace his son Georg, missing in the chaos of Barcelona. There he discovers Georg is involved with the murky political situation and accompanied by a young woman he begins a dangerous chase across Spain. Atmospheric but never entirely convincing.
February 3, 2018
No me gusto como cierre de la trilogía, no me gustó que el 90% transcurriera en España, por algo se llama la trilogía de Berlín...
No esperaba un final feliz ni alegre, porque en ningún momento de los tres libros lo fue, pero el final me pareció forzado, y cruel en exceso.
Mientras escribo esto pienso que tal ves debería darle dos estrellas, pero le doy tres porque es fácil de leer, entretiene, a pesar de no estar a la altura de las dos entregas anteriores.
No esperaba un final feliz ni alegre, porque en ningún momento de los tres libros lo fue, pero el final me pareció forzado, y cruel en exceso.
Mientras escribo esto pienso que tal ves debería darle dos estrellas, pero le doy tres porque es fácil de leer, entretiene, a pesar de no estar a la altura de las dos entregas anteriores.
July 24, 2017
I certainly learned an awful (literally) lot about the Spanish Civil War. But I am mightily sick of wars and the damage they do. An awful lot of telling to get to the core of the father-sons relationships, which were what interested me most.
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