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Henry Porter seems to be realising his dream of making a living out of espionage. Mind, he doesn't do any spying himself: he writes about it and most convincingly, too. As a journalist, Porter was stationed in West Berlin in 1989 so had an unparalleled view of just what happened in the events leading up to the savage destruction of the infamous Berlin Wall. While those events seem to be fading from the collective consciousness of the West, perhaps BRANDENBURG may serve to revivify old memories of the horrors inflicted on the citizens of the old DDR by Erich Honeker and the villainous Stasi. Rudi Rosenharte is attending a conference in Trieste on the rise of artistic conscience in the late Renaissance. Apart from his academic duties, he has been ordered to attend a rendezvous with a former lover, Annalise Schering. This could be a difficult assignment since Rudi, unbeknownst to the Stasi, saw Annalise's dead body more than 15 years previously. Rosenharte, at one time a double agent working for the Stasi and MI5, has protested vociferously to the Stasi to little effect. They hold Rudi's twin brother, film maker Konrad, prisoner in Hohenschönhausen. Konrad's family has been seized by the state and in order to have his relatives released, Rudi must obey the authorities. Whilst awaiting the arrival of 'Annalise', Rudi is approached by a Polish man who dies before being able to gasp out more than a name to enlighten Rosenharte as to his purpose. The double agent soon finds himself even more deeply enmeshed in intrigue when a Russian Lt Colonel known as Vladimir becomes, along with the British and Americans, an uncertain ally of the art historian. Rosenharte's non-Stasi employers want to find out the location and movements of an Arab, one Abu Jamal. An agent, known as Kafka to the English, has been feeding information to Rosenharte's masters and he must meet her and siphon off all possible information that she has about the Arab. Kafka is a member of a group that meets in the Nikolaikirsche in Leipzig, a group agitating for liberty for East Germans. Porter fuses fiction with fact as his protagonist treads a difficult path through the collapse of the old regime in the East Germany. The author details the incredible paranoia of the government as it abuses its power in inflicting torture on its citizens as well as imprisoning them without cause as it spies on the details of their daily lives. Porter relates the uncertain and treacherous alliances he inflicts on his hapless hero who wades through shifting sands of betrayal by colleagues and friends, as well as obvious foes, alike. To those of us who remember the ineffable joy experienced by the world when the Wall came down, the book provides a welcome reminder of that special time. Not so joyous are the details of the abuse suffered by those oppressed by the old men of the government of the time. Some of the characters in the novel are taken from real life, others are part fictional, part real and still others are completely fictional. The tale is intensely compelling despite our knowledge of what will happen in the wider chronicle, as the reader wonders apprehensively just what horror will befall Rosenharte next. For those of us who enjoyed Porter's earlier tales, especially A SPY'S LIFE, it is good to see old favourites such as Bobby Harland and Cuth Avocet plying their profession once more.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, August 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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