Last Spring in Paris

by Hans Herlin, J. Maxwell Brownjohn (Translator)

The discovery of German Lieutenant Berger's efforts to undermine the Nazi war effort threatens the success of the Allied invasion and jeapordizes the safety of Jannou, Berger's French lover

325 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Hans Herlin (1925–December 20, 1994) was a German novelist. Born in Stadtlohn, North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), he was drafted into the Luftwaffe in World War II and trained as a pilot. In 1944 he fled to Switzerland and lived in France from 1972. He started a writing career as a journalist and worked his way up to become managing editor of Molden, one of Germany's largest publishing houses. In 1961 he wrote a detailed account of the St Louis voyage with 900+ Jewish refugees from Hamburg to Cuba and on to Antwerp, called "Kein gelobtes Land". In 1972 he began writing books full time, and in 1975 published his best known novel Commemorations, about "Nazi skeletons in the national closet".Commemorations was published in the United States in 1975 by St. Martin's Press. His books have been published in more than 18 countries.

Herlin died of a heart attack at age 68, at his home in southern France on December 20, 1994.

Reviews

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Spring in Paris could technically be classed as a thriller, but it's a lot deeper and more cerebral than most thrillers I've read. That's not a bad thing, quite the opposite. Herlin does a wonderful job showing life in occupied France, from Paris to tiny coastal villages. I was really invested in the characters and wanted to see where they would end up. In particular, I want to commend the character of Berger. Yes, the sympathetic German officer has become such a cliche these days, but Berger was actually very well-written. He's portrayed as an ordinary man who's grown disillusioned with the war and just wants it to be over. He's a very complex individual, and I really found myself sympathizing with him.

His relationship with Jannou was complicated but subtle. You can tell they have very strong feelings for each other but don't want to admit it. After all, it's dangerous forming attachments or having relationships in wartime. But even if they're not openly affectionate, you can see how much they care for each other. It really was touching.

But despite all these positives, there were some aspects that just didn't work for me. For instance, the character of Reckzeh. Reckzeh himself is fine. He's a very threatening and intimidating villain without veering into the usual cartoon nazi cliches. That being said, I couldn't believe his homosexuality was an open secret and everyone was more or less okay with it. There's not a lot of information about how the SS dealt with homosexual members, but they were stripped of their rank and court-martialed at the very least. I really can't buy him having such an important position unless his sexuality was tightly under wraps.

Also, all the espionage got very convoluted and hard to follow. I understood the gist of it, yes, but all the double and triple-crossing was difficult to keep track of. I also had a hard time keeping the English agents straight, they all seemed to blur together for me. I really loved the characters and the setting, but the thriller elements weren't as good as they could have been. The suspense just didn't have me on the edge of my seat, desperate to know what happened next. The Last Spring in Paris works much better as literary fiction than it does a thriller or spy story.