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The Innocent

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The Innocent

By: Ian McEwan
Narrated by: John Franklyn-Robbins
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War-weary Berlin has much to offer Leonard Markham, a young, naive postal engineer: first the arts of sophisticated intrigue, then the delights of sexual pleasure. But Leonard's new knowledge carries a heavy price, dragging him and the listener into a new type of story that is exhaustively suspenseful and utterly irresistible.Listen to an interview with Ian McEwan on Charlie Rose.©1990 Ian McEwan (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Espionage Fiction Suspense War Exciting Genre Fiction Psychological

Critic reviews

"McEwan's name will be on everyone's lips with his startling new novel, an impeccably constructed psychological thriller set in Berlin during the Cold War....McEwan's neat, tensile prose raises this book to the highest level of the genre." (Publishers Weekly)
"A tour de force of horror and philosophical suspense." (The New York Times)
"So exhaustively suspenseful....It should be devoured at one sitting." (Newsweek)
"McEwan...a breathtaking master...has written a blueprint for the future of the genre." (Time)
Intriguing Twists • Complex Characters • Historical Authenticity • Emotional Depth • Distinct Enunciation

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A feel good Cold War story. It mainly takes place in the mid 1950s. Out outs a love story, a spy story and to a degree a murder story. It mixed German, American, and British cultures. The young couple, particularly the young man are well portrayed. Perhaps there is some betrayal here. Mainly the story OSS one of trying to recover from one war while enduring a Cold War.

A feel good Cold War story

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At first I thought this was going to be "The Spy Who Fell Into the Cold War." The setting was right; the characters were available, but then, like life, it veered into an unexpected alley. So I thought it was going to be about romance and trust and danger. But the danger wasn't from the embattled governments or other outside influences in the divided city or the divided society; the danger was from inside the relationship, from inside the individuals. Then, like life, the story veered again, coping with danger, and danger was like a voracious beast intent on devouring the trust and the romance. Only the ending of the novel doesn't ring true for me, the looking back, the untying, the rekindling; these are the postscripts to a Hollywood movie, the way we'd like things to be, under control and logical, but not very lifelike.

A Lifelike Knot of Possibilities

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very poorly recorded. the sound of the reader breathing and pausing is distracting and very irritating

OK story, needed editing, poor recoding

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I love this author, and the innocent has so many twists and turns, I found myself gasping out loud, laughing out loud, shaking my head incredulously! Excellent read!

Found my self gas being out loud

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What a great story from pre-wall Berlin. Not the typical spy story, but as an industrial espionage, so much more believable. Will look for other works from McEwan.

Great story

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