Hamburg, 1947.
Adam is a young British lawyer is posted to the destroyed city to assist in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, an exhausting, soul-destroying and demoralising task.
He falls in love with Rose, a German girl, during a time of strict anti-fraternisation rules. Rose is beautiful, educated, clever, witty … and is forced to earn her living in a brothel. Adam becomes increasingly obsessed with her.
Then a Nazi prisoner, responsible for the cold-blooded killing of hundreds of innocents, escapes while in Adam’s custody. There is only one place for the desperate man to hide: in Hamburg’s Dead Zone. And Adam is even more desperate to find him, no matter what the cost.
David Goodland –
I’m old enough to remember seeing Fireweed(Rosebay Willowherb) growing wild on the old bomb sites in Bristol.
Hamburg was heavily bombed towards the end of the war and the civilians there suffered as we did. Richard Vaughan Davies “Fireweed” is a shockingly authentic account of how they coped. Nothing is spared in showing us the sheer misery and pervading guilt. But there’s more.
Vaughan Davies manages to hold the mirror up to ourselves. With stunning detail ( I remember Bronco toilet paper and Passing Clouds cigarettes) he asks us the question “How would we have behaved under Hitler? There are disquieting parallels too, with the current world situation.
This is super storytelling with many a twist in the plot. Analysis of Hitler’s childhood, life in a German Brothel, unrequited love in the desperate ruins. A really interesting read. Superb in fact.