Otto de Kat

The question that comes to mind when you start reading hangs over your head throughout the entire book. "Is this an autobiography or is it all made up?" The latter is the case. And the question then becomes one of, 'how much negativity can an author put into a book?' A lot, according to "De Embarker". It is not a book to read one after the other, unless you want to quickly get to the end, where fortunately, despite the main character's intentions to leave the Netherlands again, there is still some positivity to be found. Especially with Guus' father. A, in my opinion, bleak book.… (more)

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the invasion of Russia by Germany on 22 June 1941. One of the questions this novel asks is would it have helped Russia if they had known the date of the invasion and would they have believed the information if they had been given it. Although the dilemma of knowing this hung heavily on Oscar Verschuur, a Dutch diplomat / spy who helped refugees into Switzerland and to safety beyond. His daughter, Emma told her father about Operation Barbarossa. She lived in Berlin and had been told it by her husband, Carl, who worked for the German government but was not a party member. Oscar's wife lived in London, working in a hospital. Oscar knew he was being followed and worried for the safety of his daughter if he revealed the planned date of the invasion to authorities. What happened was that Emma found out that her father was being unfaithful to her mother via the Gestapo, throwing up memories of being abandoned with relatives when her parents were posted away and making it clear that her father was not perfect. We see Oscar falling fin love with Lara, the mysterious woman he meets in the mountains. Meanwhile Oscar's wife, Kate, is caring for a young soldier who is injured and her love for him brings back memories of her first husband, a very different man to her second. These are memories she has tried to forget but they re-emerged. This is a short and tightly written novel about family and love and loyalty and about memories that linger.… (more)

Beautiful, sad, soulful, lonely and exquisitely painful. A novel which should be read over and over to extract all its richness. Rich in language, pacing, characterizations; the conciseness of the words, the beautiful settings, and provocative atmosphere.

At first glance this book can appear boring, too quiet, little action. But looks are deceiving. Kat tantalizes us with small drops of material, then gives us more information, and more and more. Soon we are overwhelmed by what we believe is the whole of it. But its not... the words are concentrated into a stunning powerhouse of intense love, dreadful miscommunications, potent desire, repressed memories, inconceivable loss, distress and fear.

Brilliant and dynamic!… (more)

I love it when a book that’s on my wishlist waves at me from the new books shelves at the library! There it was, News from Berlin which Grant at 1st Reading had so enticingly reviewed, so of course I brought it home. And read it straight away because it’s only just over 200 pages long and I couldn’t put it down.
Otto de Kat is the pen name of Dutch author, publisher, critic and poet Jan Geurt Gaarlandt. The book jacket tells me that his award-winning novels have been widely published throughout Europe and Man on the Move (2009) was the winner of Holland’s Halewijn Literature Prize. News from Berlin is translated by Ina Rilke who also translated two books by noted Dutch author Hella Haase that I have read, so I knew the translation would be good.
And it is. The translation is excellent. News from Berlin is a sophisticated psychological thriller, exploring the moral choices that arise during war. In June 1941 Dutch diplomat Oscar Verschuur is in neutral Switzerland engaged in a number of covert activities including assistance to refugees. The Nazis (who seem to be welcome in ‘neutral’ Switzerland) are keeping a close eye on him of course, and he has to be careful because his daughter Emma in Berlin is married to a German called Carl who is also engaged in activities under the radar, and his wife Kate is in London (where she is absorbed in the care of an injured Congolese soldier caught up in Belgium’s support for the allied cause against the Nazis in Africa). Right at this time Oscar has also met, and seems to have fallen for, a very gorgeous but enigmatic woman called Lara who might, or might not, be someone to be wary of. And all these characters are in a state of flux, not only stateless, but also at risk of the war reaching them even when theoretically safe in neutral countries like Switzerland and Portugal.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/08/08/news-from-berlin-by-otto-de-kat-translated-b...… (more)