Ian McEwan receives uniformly rave reviews and this is the first book of his I have read, one written about mid-span of his career to date (1990). Set in Berlin in the depth of the Cold War (1955), the main character, 25-year old Leonard Marnham, is a British civil servant recruited to facilitate work on a joint venture between the Americans and the Brits. They are building a tunnel under the east-west Berlin border to eavesdrop on Russian communications--ostensibly a real event. Leonard is naive in almost every imaginable way. He is awkward around both the Americans, who are somewhat stereotypically portrayed as brash, over-confident bullies, and around the German woman who picks him up in a night club and seduces him. He falls in love with and eventually becomes engaged to Maria, and their relationship eventually leads to a dramatic and deadly confrontation with her abusive and drunken ex-husband. Desperate to save himself and Maria, Leonard engages in his own personal act of espionage. In spite of being well-crafted, I didn't ever really come to care for or about any of the characters, and felt as cold about the story as the bitter winter the characters must endure.
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