Zoo Station

In Nazi controlled Germany one spent much of their time keeping their head down and trying not to draw any attention to themselves. In [Zoo Station] David Downing captures this claustrophobic feeling as he tells the story of Anglo-American journalist John Russell, living and working in Berlin, held there by emotional ties. He has a German girlfriend he doesn’t wish to leave and a half-German son who means the world to him. Being a divorced father means he gets to spend very little time with his son, but if he left or was expelled he would have to leave his son behind.

What then does he do when he stumbles on an enormous story, one that the rest of the world really should see to get a true picture of how far the Nazi regime is willing show more to go to keep their bloodlines pure. Another journalist has already been killed over this story, and the hunt is on for the letters and documents that would reveal their plans. At the same time John agrees to teach English to a couple of Jewish girls whose parents are trying desperately to get the family, or at least the children out of Germany. When the father is accused of a crime and the mother is refused a Visa, how can a man of conscience not get involved?

David Downing manages to tell a well paced, complex story that draws the reader along, quietly building the tension as the increasingly murderous nature of this regime is revealed. Hindsight is twenty-twenty and we know what is going to eventually happen, but this is a masterful look at a repressed and frightened people under the control of a government that ruled by terror, unfortunately these people looked the other way and did not want to become involved until it was suddenly too late. show less

John Russell is a British expat in Germany in 1939. Although conditions are worsening for many in Hitler’s Germany and it seems like Europe is heading for another war, Russell is loath to leave Germany because of his young son, who lives with Russell’s ex-wife and her new husband. Russell also has a German lover he’d rather not leave behind. Russell is approached by a Soviet agent with a request to write a series of articles about life in Nazi Germany. Soon the British have requests for him, too. He walks a fine line trying to keep the Soviets and the British happy without getting into trouble with the Nazis.

The book has a strong sense of place. It explores the growing danger for German Jews in 1939, with Russell assisting a show more Jewish family to whom he’s been giving English lessons. It also explores the dangers faced by other groups targeted by the Nazis – homosexuals and persons with disabilities. Russell is a bit of an antihero. He’s not a moral crusader on a mission to rescue Jews and defeat the Nazis, but he does his part to help those who need it within his circle of friends and acquaintances. show less

I wouldn't have called myself a spy novel fan before reading this novel in which suspense and mystery are masterfully combined with historical events. The story begins on New Year 1939, exactly nine months before Hitler's invasion of Poland. British journalist John Russell has been living in Berlin since the early 20s, having fought in WWI and doing his best ever since to put the memories of trench warfare behind him. The Nazis have become all-powerful, with 1938's Kristallnacht—an attack on Germany and Austria's Jews during which more than 1,500 synagogues were ransacked, and more than 250 set on fire—still very fresh in everyone's memory. Jews are no longer allowed to earn a salary and are turned away from restaurants and most show more public places, dissidents of the Third Reich are sent to concentration camps and rarely returned to freedom in one piece, if at all. Considering all this, Russell knows he should leave Germany and seek shelter either in Britain or better yet, in the United States, where his American mother is living, but this option doesn't seem possible to him, since his twelve-year-old German son by a German ex-wife, Paul, along with the love of his life, Effy—a minor film star and local celebrity—won't likely be able to leave with him.

When he is coerced by a Soviet operative who requests he write articles for Russian newspapers, things take an even more dangerous turn for him. One of his neighbours, a young American journalist has hit upon a potentially explosive story—and one that is likely to get him killed—a reliable witness has given him documents confirming that the Nazis have been killing off disabled and mentally deficient children as part of their plan to purify the race, while keeping the parents in the dark as to the true cause of death. Russell knows better than to get involved, but before long he feels morally obliged to take on the documents. He's also taken on a private tutoring engagement to try to make ends meet—teaching English to two Jewish sisters who's parents want to send them to England. He becomes attached to the family and does all he can to help them, even as the father, a doctor who is no longer allowed to treat patients, is taken into a concentration camp under false charges. All these plot elements are woven together in an expert manner, and I found myself invested in the fates of these characters who are trying to survive in very dangerous times. The impeding sense of doom is very real, all the more so because while we know the historical facts, Downing does a commendable job of convincing us that the outcome is as yet unknown by presenting us with credible stories of individuals doing their best to survive. Captivating. show less

You'll like Zoo Station, if you like Philip Kerr's 'Bernie Gunther' stories or Robert Harris' 'Fatherland'. If you like Alan Furst.

If you like thrillers set in Europe the years leading up to the outbreak of WWII.

If you'd like a tantalizing glimpse into a somewhat forgotten - and in many ways, misunderstood - world.

Zoo Station, the first in David Downing's Zoo series, is a really rather wonderful and absorbing period piece. In essence; a small tale set against a much bigger, darker backdrop. Involving ordinary people doing ordinary things, like just getting on with their lives, during extraordinary circumstances. The 'hero', is John Russell, an English freelance newspaper writer living in Germany in the early months of 1939, obviously show more just before the outbreak of World War II. Though, as the book further illustrates (and as if you have read anything else about this period, you will know), 'outbreak' is much more accidental-sounding than was actually the case. Through Russell, we see how the Nazi party has infiltrated its way into the minutiae of Germans' everyday life. And not in a pleasant way of course. You don't need to have done, but it certainly would increase you understanding of novels set in this period, if you had read a book like Richard J. Evans' 'The Coming of the Third Reich'.

With hindsight, it might seem a little strange that an Englishman is living in Germany at this time. But he has good reason to be there. His has an ex-wife, a son and a beautiful, actress girlfriend to care for. He becomes involved with the Russians, ostensibly writing articles on typical German daily life, so the Russian people might better understand their prospective allies. But really he's spying. He knows that and thinks that as long as he can keep the Russians where he can see them, he'll be ok. The same with his British allies. As of course, the British also want a piece of the information cake. So Russell in effect becomes something of an unwitting double agent, with no real master but himself and no real loyalty to anyone, apart from to his family. But, being an Englishman more than somewhat integrated into pre-War German society, gives Russell the opportunity to observe, perhaps understand - though without condoning - and maybe react differently to the zeitgeist. Differently to how a typical German person would have. Or would have been able to have done.

I found this a wonderful, engaging and involving read. An Englishman in a strange land, just doing the right thing, without fanfare. Acting heroically when looked back on, but only made heroic by the times. It is sublimely written and plotted, really well put together. You can almost touch the atmosphere of pre-War Berlin (I have no idea what the pre-War Berlin atmosphere was really like, but I can't imagine it being far from what is brought out here). It's the little things, the small incidents that do it. Giving English lessons to Jewish children, taking trains to Poland, trips to London, picking his son up from his ex-wife, all give this story its edge over others you might read. It's not exactly what you'd think of if I said 'a real page-turner', but to someone who appreciates fine writing and acute observation, sometimes with an acerbic edge *takes bow*, it was a book I found very hard to put away. The best part is, there are many more to come after this one.

My only beef, would be with the recommendation on the cover. I'm never normally a great fan of 'a wonderful evocation of *insert long, long ago time period here* -type recommendations. I mean, unless they themselves were the character's age during that very same time, how do they know? It's not just about knowing the facts of what went on, that's often the easy part. It's surely about knowing about what people felt at that time and why. And the 'and why' can only come if you grew up in that period, were there and were affected by those special circumstances. A person born today would, when reaching writing/author age, surely have trouble imagining a time when there was no Internet, for instance. Tell someone that TVs used to be only black and white, only one or two channels and were the size of a Shetland pony - see what kind of look you get back. So someone saying it is 'a wonderful evocation of...', is guessing it is, hoping it is and probably should have inserted 'in my opinion' in there somewhere. Having said all that...this, in my opinion and based on what I have read about the period - and with parents still alive who were alive during that period, IS 'an extraordinary evocation of Nazi Germany on the eve of war...', as CJ Sansom says on the front cover.

If you like an absorbing read, a good tale well told and with more to come. This is for you. show less

When we meet John Russell in a seedy hotel in Danzig (now Gdansk) at the start of 1939 he's already had an interesting life. It's about to get a lot hairier. He's a freelance journalist living in Berlin. He grew up in England and the US, has a German ex-wife Ilse whom he met at the 1924 Communist Party conference in Moscow, and a 12 year old son Paul. His girlfriend Effi is an actress, and he makes a bit of extra money by giving English lessons.. Downing makes the most of all Russell's connections to give a full picture of life in Berlin before the war. Russell finds the Nazis repugnant even at the start of the book, but tries to keep his head down and just be a good Dad to his son, who's in the Jungvolk and a bit embarrassed by his show more English Dad. His attitude changes as he learns more and more about what's going on.

There is lots of character development in this book, and detail of Berlin. I loved that I had visited quite a few of the places in the book - one of the S-Bahn stations where something happens was the nearest one to my hotel last year so I could picture the different exits. Downing spends a lot of time showing the reader what life was like and it makes for a very tense book. When the police are the killers, there's little chance of a wholly happy ending. As usual, the Jews are like frogs in heating up water, but this book is set pretty late in the 30s so life is unbearable already and the lines at the British Embassy to get exit visas are very long. Felix Wiesner used to be a doctor, before he was banned from practising medicine, and as a favour to a friend in the embassy John Russell starts tutoring Ruth and Martha Wiesner in English. They're a really lovely family and they're trying to get the girls out to England.

Highly recommended if you like spy thrillers. My hands were shaking near the end and I don't remember that happening before! I liked this more than the first Phillip Kerr (it was silghtly more believable near the end). I bought the next one, Silesian Station last night. show less

This is a very good slow boil thriller set in Berlin just before the start of WWII, during 1939. It is billed as a spy thriller but it isn't the sort that Alan Furst excels at. There are several things the story revolves around, notably Jewish Germans and the development of a final solution for developmentally disabled children and other asylum residents. The characters in here are interesting and well developed.

The author obviously knows his history with all the period detail, although the naming of just about every street eventually seems a little excessive. This isn't a history lesson, however, unless one knows absolutely nothing about the rise of Nazi power in Germany. What it does do is put a human face on the unfolding events. show more Not a page turner until close to the end but it is a very satisfying read.

This is the first book in a series and my book included a preview of the following novel Silesian Station which looks very good. show less

This is the first book that I have read entirely in 2015.

Amazon had the whole series as a deal of the day for 99p each. I’d had this one, the first in the series, for a little while so I dipped in to see if the rest were worth buying. I got hooked and spent a fiver!

I bought this one as an amazon recommendation. I’ve been buying first hand accounts and histories of the SOE for decades. I picked up the pace a bit a year ago when doing background reading for the short story Hunting Nazis which I used for the end of module on A215. I also read cold war spy fiction too. So amazon recommended me Downing’s series. The link is fairly obvious.

This is about an Anglo American journalist living in Berlin in 1939 where his German ex wife and show more kid live too. He has a girlfriend too. The book starts on 31 Dec 1938 just as things are darkening. The story is as much commentary on how the war comes and why ordinary people didn’t protest as it is about how John Russell is drawn into working for various intelligence agencies.

The story is paced very well and has that car crash quality about it. You know everything is going to hell but you want to keep on reading to find out how. I hadn’t expected a number of the twists in the story and I did wonder if it was going to end with him in jail, I knew it couldn’t be worse because there were five more books.

This was very enjoyable and I finished it in a few days. It sneaked in ahead of some other books in the reading order, although I’m resisting the next one until I’ve managed a couple of paper books, per my 2015 resolution. show less