Joseph Kanon – författare

'A modern master at work’ THE TIMES‘Heart-poundingly suspenseful’ WASHINGTON POST‘Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape’ LEE CHILDBerlin, 1963. The height of the Cold War and an early morning spy swap. On one side of the trade: Martin Keller, an American physicist who once made headlines, but who then disappeared into the English prison system. Keller's most critical possession: his American passport. His most ardent desire: to see his ex-wife Sabine and their young son.But Martin has questions: who asked for him? Who negotiated the deal? Just the KGB bringing home one of its agents? Or, as he hopes, a more personal intervention? He has worked for the service long enough to know that nothing happens by chance. They want him for something. Not physics – his expertise is years out of date. Something else, which he cannot learn until he arrives in East Berlin, when suddenly the game is afoot.From the master of suspense, this is an exhilarating return to Joseph Kanon’s heartland, the perilous backdrop of Berlin, now at the height of the Cold War.PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: 'An enjoyable blend of atmospherics, doomed love story and Cold War derring-do' Sunday Times'Thoroughly absorbing, a thoughtful and subtle evocation of a place and era' Sunday Telegraph'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best . . . of spy thriller writers . . . Kanon writes beautifully, superbly' The Times'The critical stock of Joseph Kanon is high' Guardian

How do you do the right thing when there are only bad choices to be made?A neutral capital straddling Europe and Asia, Istanbul survived WW2 as a magnet for refugees and spies, trafficking in secrets and lies rather than soldiers. Expatriate American businessman Leon Bauer was drawn into this shadow world, doing undercover odd jobs and courier runs in support of the Allied war effort. Now as the espionage community begins to pack up and an apprehensive city prepares for the grim realities of post-war life, Leon is given one last routine assignment. But when the job goes fatally wrong - an exchange of gunfire, a body left in the street, and a potential war criminal in his hands - he is plunged into a nightmarish tangle of intrigue, shifting loyalties and moral uncertainty.Rich with atmosphere and period detail, Istanbul Passage is the story of a man swept up in the dawn of the Cold War, an unexpected love affair, and a city as deceptive as the calm surface waters of the Bosphorus that divides it.

‘Step forward Kanon, the American Robert Harris, a man who finds untold stories from our recent past and brings them alive’ TIM SHIPMAN, SUNDAY TIMESDaniel Lohr, sensing that the Nazis are closing in on the Jews, leaves his dying father in Berlin and boards a ship to Shanghai. His passage is dependent upon him delivering a package to his shady uncle, his father’s brother, upon arrival. Daniel has no idea what the package contains. On board is Leah, also fleeing the Nazis. She and Daniel conduct a passionate but brief shipboard affair, but are separated as soon as the ship docks in Shanghai. Will he ever see her again?  Daniel is immediately plunged into his uncle’s seductive and corrupt world, and becomes involved in the launch of a new nightclub, the biggest, best and most glitzy in town. When violence breaks out and lives are at risk, he finds himself drawn irrevocably into the terrifying underworld that is wartime Shanghai.Beautifully atmospheric and intricately plotted, this masterful thriller marks exciting new ground for an author hailed by the Sunday Times as ‘the most accomplished spy novelist working today’.PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: 'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times'Heart-poundingly suspenseful' Washington Post'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best . . . he is the master of the shadows of the era' The Times'Thoroughly absorbing, a thoughtful and subtle evocation of a place and era' Sunday Telegraph‘Arguably America’s greatest writer of historical thrillers’ Sunday Times'Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape' Lee Child 'Sensational! No one writes period fiction with the same style and suspense – not to mention substance – as Joseph Kanon' Scott Turow'The perfect combination of intrigue and accurate history brought to life' Alan Furst

‘Gripping and authentic’ NEW YORK TIMES‘Heartrending . . . An engrossing read’ FINANCIAL TIMESSEVENTEEN YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE THIRD REICH Max Weill has never forgotten the face of Otto Schramm, a doctor who worked with Mengele on appalling experiments and who sent Max’s family to the gas chambers.A NAZI WAR CRIMINAL WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD When Schramm escaped to South America after the war, Max swore to one day bring him back to Germany to stand trial. With his life now nearing its end, he asks his nephew Aaron Wiley – a CIA desk analyst – to capture the doctor.AND THE ROGUE CIA AGENT ON HIS TRAIL In Buenos Aires, and unable to distinguish allies from enemies, Aaron must test the boundaries of his own personal morality and ultimately decide: how far is he prepared to go to render justice?PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: ​'Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape and it’s a joy to see him reassert his title with such emphatic authority' Lee Child'Clever, devious and morally complex' Sunday Times'Sensational! No one writes period fiction with the same style and suspense – not to mention substance – as Joseph Kanon' Scott Turow'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times'The perfect combination of intrigue and accurate history brought to life' Alan Furst'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best . . . of spy thriller writers . . . Kanon writes beautifully, superbly . . . he is the master of the shadows of the era' The Times'The critical stock of Joseph Kanon is high, and Defectors will add further lustre to his reputation . . . There are pleasing echoes here of the “entertainments” of Graham Greene' Guardian

Jake Geismar cut his teeth as a foreign correspondent in pre-war Berlin. When he returns in 1945 to cover the Potsdam conference he finds the city unrecognisable - streets have vanished beneath the rubble, familiar landmarks truncated by high explosive. But amongst the ruins Berliners survive, including some he knew and, miraculously, his lost love, Lena. However, in the same way she refused to leave with him before the war, Lena won't join him now without finding her husband and Emil has disappeared from the safe care of the Americans who, turning a blind eye to his links with Hitler, want his expertise as a rocket designer for themselves. Trawling through the shambles of the city, through the illegal night clubs and the thriving black market, Jake discovers that the twilight war of intrigue between west and east has already begun and that he could quite easily be one of its first casualties. This superb novel from the author of Leaving Berlin is now rightly considered a modern classic.

The year is 1946. A stunned Europe is beginning its slow recovery from the ravages of World War II. Adam Miller has come to Venice to visit his widowed mother and forget the horrors he witnessed as a US Army war crimes investigator in Germany. But when Adam falls in love with Claudia, a Jewish woman scarred by her devastating experiences during the war, he is forced to confront a Venice haunted by atrocities it would rather forget.Beneath the dream-like façade he discovers a city in which everyone was compromised by occupation, not least Gianni Maglione, the suave and enigmatic Venetian who is both his mother's new suitor and the man responsible for much of Claudia's suffering. When the troubled past erupts in violent murder, Adam finds himself at the centre of a torturous web in which the most valuable thing is not a stone-cold alibi, but the truth itself.The truth will out in this fantastic mystery from the author of Leaving Berlin and The Good German.

It is 1950 and communists are being hunted across America. When Walter Kotlar is accused of being a spy by the House Un-American Activities Committee, his young son Nick destroys a piece of evidence only he knows about. But before the hearing can conclude, Walter flees the country, leaving behind his family...and a key witness lying dead, apparently having committed suicide. Nineteen years later, Nick gets a second chance to discover the truth when a beautiful journalist brings a message from his long-lost father, and Nick follows her into Soviet-occupied Prague for a painful reunion and the discovery of a secret that changes everything. To unravel the lies Nick must return to where it all began and expose the one person who knew the truth - and who watched his family's destruction. Trust no one in this compelling, surprising thriller from the author of Leaving Berlin and The Good German.

Interweaving fact and fiction, Los Alamos is at once a powerful novel of historical intrigue and a vivid portrait of the most mysterious figures involved in the Manhattan Project: Robert Oppenheimer.Spring 1945. As work on the first atomic bomb nears completion in New Mexico, Karl Bruner, a Manhattan Project security officer, is found murdered.Michael Connolly, the intelligence officer brought in to crack Bruner's case, soon discovers that investigating a murder in Los Alamos - a town so secret it does not officially exist - is anything but easy. Only once he falls in love and begins an affair with Emma, the enigmatic wife of one of the scientists, does he truly begin to unravel the dark heart of the Project.Elegantly written and deftly constructed, Los Alamos is the stunning debut novel of the author of Leaving Berlin and The Good German.'Brilliantly captures the burgeoning Cold War paranoia'Observer'Accomplished and beautifully written'Sunday Telegraph'Enthralling . . . a dream of a novel'Time Out

'A modern master at work’ THE TIMES‘Heart-poundingly suspenseful’ WASHINGTON POST‘Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape’ LEE CHILDBerlin, 1963. The height of the Cold War and an early morning spy swap. On one side of the trade: Martin Keller, an American physicist who once made headlines, but who then disappeared into the English prison system. Keller's most critical possession: his American passport. His most ardent desire: to see his ex-wife Sabine and their young son.But Martin has questions: who asked for him? Who negotiated the deal? Just the KGB bringing home one of its agents? Or, as he hopes, a more personal intervention? He has worked for the service long enough to know that nothing happens by chance. They want him for something. Not physics – his expertise is years out of date. Something else, which he cannot learn until he arrives in East Berlin, when suddenly the game is afoot.From the master of suspense, this is an exhilarating return to Joseph Kanon’s heartland, the perilous backdrop of Berlin, now at the height of the Cold War.PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: 'An enjoyable blend of atmospherics, doomed love story and Cold War derring-do' Sunday Times'Thoroughly absorbing, a thoughtful and subtle evocation of a place and era' Sunday Telegraph'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best . . . of spy thriller writers . . . Kanon writes beautifully, superbly' The Times'The critical stock of Joseph Kanon is high' Guardian

‘Step forward Kanon, the American Robert Harris, a man who finds untold stories from our recent past and brings them alive’ TIM SHIPMAN, SUNDAY TIMESDaniel Lohr, sensing that the Nazis are closing in on the Jews, leaves his dying father in Berlin and boards a ship to Shanghai. His passage is dependent upon him delivering a package to his shady uncle, his father’s brother, upon arrival. Daniel has no idea what the package contains. On board is Leah, also fleeing the Nazis. She and Daniel conduct a passionate but brief shipboard affair, but are separated as soon as the ship docks in Shanghai. Will he ever see her again?  Daniel is immediately plunged into his uncle’s seductive and corrupt world, and becomes involved in the launch of a new nightclub, the biggest, best and most glitzy in town. When violence breaks out and lives are at risk, he finds himself drawn irrevocably into the terrifying underworld that is wartime Shanghai.Beautifully atmospheric and intricately plotted, this masterful thriller marks exciting new ground for an author hailed by the Sunday Times as ‘the most accomplished spy novelist working today’.PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: 'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times'Heart-poundingly suspenseful' Washington Post'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best . . . he is the master of the shadows of the era' The Times'Thoroughly absorbing, a thoughtful and subtle evocation of a place and era' Sunday Telegraph‘Arguably America’s greatest writer of historical thrillers’ Sunday Times'Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape' Lee Child 'Sensational! No one writes period fiction with the same style and suspense – not to mention substance – as Joseph Kanon' Scott Turow'The perfect combination of intrigue and accurate history brought to life' Alan Furst

‘Step forward Kanon, the American Robert Harris, a man who finds untold stories from our recent past and brings them alive’ TIM SHIPMAN, SUNDAY TIMESDaniel Lohr, sensing that the Nazis are closing in on the Jews, leaves his dying father in Berlin and boards a ship to Shanghai. His passage is dependent upon him delivering a package to his shady uncle, his father’s brother, upon arrival. Daniel has no idea what the package contains. On board is Leah, also fleeing the Nazis. She and Daniel conduct a passionate but brief shipboard affair, but are separated as soon as the ship docks in Shanghai. Will he ever see her again?  Daniel is immediately plunged into his uncle’s seductive and corrupt world, and becomes involved in the launch of a new nightclub, the biggest, best and most glitzy in town. When violence breaks out and lives are at risk, he finds himself drawn irrevocably into the terrifying underworld that is wartime Shanghai.Beautifully atmospheric and intricately plotted, this masterful thriller marks exciting new ground for an author hailed by the Sunday Times as ‘the most accomplished spy novelist working today’.PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: 'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times'Heart-poundingly suspenseful' Washington Post'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best . . . he is the master of the shadows of the era' The Times'Thoroughly absorbing, a thoughtful and subtle evocation of a place and era' Sunday Telegraph‘Arguably America’s greatest writer of historical thrillers’ Sunday Times'Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape' Lee Child 'Sensational! No one writes period fiction with the same style and suspense – not to mention substance – as Joseph Kanon' Scott Turow'The perfect combination of intrigue and accurate history brought to life' Alan Furst

'Up there with the very best . . . Kanon writes beautifully, superbly . . . He is the master of the shadows of the era' THE TIMESFrom the author of The Good German (made into a film starring George Clooney), Leaving Berlin is a sweeping post-war story and an international bestseller.Berlin is still in ruins almost four years after the war, caught between political idealism and the harsh realities of Soviet occupation. Alex Meier is a young Jewish writer who fled the Nazis for America before the war. Now, the politics of his youth have left him embroiled in the McCarthy witch-hunts. Faced with deportation and the loss of his family, Alex makes a desperate bargain with the fledgling CIA: he will earn his way back to America by acting as their agent in his native Berlin.  But almost from the start things go fatally wrong. Espionage, like the black market, is still a way of life.PRAISE FOR LEAVING BERLIN:'An unforgettable picture of a city wrecked by defeat and betrayal. Brilliant' THE TIMES'Leaving Berlin is hauntingly and beautifully written. You’re going to love it . . . Falling into the book is like falling into a vice; it grips you, pitilessly, until the last page' RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB'Hugely exciting' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'One of the most exciting books I’ve read in years' ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series'Brings the hardships and moral decay of post-war Berlin to life in glorious detail' DAILY EXPRESS

From the bestselling author of Leaving Berlin comes an explosive and richly imagined thriller set in the early days of the Cold War. SOME SECRETS SHOULD NEVER BE TOLDMoscow, 1961: With the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union's international prestige is at an all-time high. And the most notorious of the defectors to the Soviet Union, former CIA agent Frank Weeks, is about to publish his memoir. What he reveals will send shock waves through the West. Weeks' defection in the early 1950s shook Washington to its core – and forced the resignation of his brother, Simon, from the State Department.Simon, now a publisher in New York, is given the opportunity to read and publish his brother’s memoir. He knows the US government will never approve the publication of what is clearly intended as KGB propaganda. Yet the offer is irresistible: it will finally give him the chance to learn why his brother chose to betray his country.But what he discovers in Moscow is far more shocking than he ever imagined . . . PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: 'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best of the current crop of spy thriller writers . . . he is the master of the shadows of the era . . . a frightening, convincing portrait of the state's capacity to control every aspect of the lives of its subjects and even its visitors. Kanon writes beautifully, superbly conveying human sadness and regret' The Times on Defectors'The critical stock of Joseph Kanon will add further lustre to his reputation . . . There are pleasing echoes here of the "entertainments" of Graham Greene' Guardian on Defectors'Defectors [is] as readable and suspenseful as the fine espionage novels of Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, Charles McCarry, Robert Littell, Alan Furst and John Le Carré — and its roller-coaster plot will keep you guessing until the final page' Washington Post'An excellent tale about secrets, loyalty and betrayal' Sun'One of the most exciting books I've read in years' Alexander McCall Smith on Leaving Berlin'Spectacular in every way' Lee Child on Stardust'Tense and atmospheric, with sinister intrigue' Wall Street Journal on Istanbul Passage

From the bestselling author of Leaving Berlin comes an explosive and richly imagined thriller set in the early days of the Cold War. SOME SECRETS SHOULD NEVER BE TOLDMoscow, 1961: With the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union's international prestige is at an all-time high. And the most notorious of the defectors to the Soviet Union, former CIA agent Frank Weeks, is about to publish his memoir. What he reveals will send shock waves through the West. Weeks' defection in the early 1950s shook Washington to its core – and forced the resignation of his brother, Simon, from the State Department.Simon, now a publisher in New York, is given the opportunity to read and publish his brother’s memoir. He knows the US government will never approve the publication of what is clearly intended as KGB propaganda. Yet the offer is irresistible: it will finally give him the chance to learn why his brother chose to betray his country.But what he discovers in Moscow is far more shocking than he ever imagined . . . PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: 'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best of the current crop of spy thriller writers . . . he is the master of the shadows of the era . . . a frightening, convincing portrait of the state's capacity to control every aspect of the lives of its subjects and even its visitors. Kanon writes beautifully, superbly conveying human sadness and regret' The Times on Defectors'The critical stock of Joseph Kanon will add further lustre to his reputation . . . There are pleasing echoes here of the "entertainments" of Graham Greene' Guardian on Defectors'Defectors [is] as readable and suspenseful as the fine espionage novels of Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, Charles McCarry, Robert Littell, Alan Furst and John Le Carré — and its roller-coaster plot will keep you guessing until the final page' Washington Post'An excellent tale about secrets, loyalty and betrayal' Sun'One of the most exciting books I've read in years' Alexander McCall Smith on Leaving Berlin'Spectacular in every way' Lee Child on Stardust'Tense and atmospheric, with sinister intrigue' Wall Street Journal on Istanbul Passage