Ben Fergusson Books

A story of adoption, queer parenting and gender expectations around family roles.

In West Berlin in 1989, eighteen-year-old Ralf has just left school and is living a final golden summer with his three best friends. They spend their days swimming, smoking and daydreaming about the future, oblivious to the storm gathering on the other side of the Berlin Wall.But an unsettling discovery about his family and a meeting with the mysterious Oz shatters everything Ralf thought he knew about love and loyalty. And as old Cold War tensions begin to tear his life apart, he finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, forced to make impossible choices about his country, his family and his heart.

'A book to love and cherish' Deborah Levy, author of The Cost of Living 'A beautiful writer and, just as important, a beautiful thinker' Hanya Yanagihara, author of A Little Life 'Friendship is, in fact, as much the topic of this book as aloneness' Sarah Bakewell, Guardian At no time before have so many people lived alone, and never has loneliness been so widely or keenly felt. Why, in a society of individualists, is living alone perceived as a shameful failure? And can we ever be happy on our own? 'A heartfelt memoir on being single, living alone and the existential experience of loneliness' Financial Times 'Romantic love, suggests the author, is the lone "grand narrative" to have survived seismic societal shifts in modern times . . . Hermits and intimacy, the taboo of loneliness and the consolation of friendship - all find their place in a meditation that nods to joy and adversity' Observer

Set in post-war Berlin in 1946, a city ravaged by conflict and scarcity, the story follows Kasper Meier, who resorts to black market trading to survive alongside his elderly father. The war may be over, but the struggle for basic necessities continues. When a young woman named Eva seeks Kasper's help to locate a British pilot, he feels a reluctant sympathy but initially refuses to get involved in military matters. However, Eva is determined and knows Kasper's secrets, using them to manipulate him into assisting her. As threats against him escalate, Kasper finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue that he never anticipated. He grapples with questions about Eva's insistence on finding the pilot and the enigmatic Frau Beckmann's influence over her. Under constant surveillance, Kasper navigates the perilous streets of a city still haunted by its past. As he uncovers connections between the random killings of occupying forces and his own predicament, he realizes he must uncover the truth behind Eva's demands while striving to protect himself, his father, and Eva from the dangers that surround them.

A fascinating look at racism and snobbery. Broken postwar Germany is superbly drawn and events in Africa are horrific The Times