The Glass Pearls

Pressburger, Emeric

£9.99

Karl Braun is a slight, grey-haired man who lodges in West London and works as a tuner for a firm of piano makers who know little or nothing about him. His fellow lodgers believe that he, like them, came to England to flee Hitler. But the outwardly poised Herr Braun is inwardly a very anxious man, wracked especially by newspaper reports of the ongoing hunt for Nazi war criminals.

Available on backorder

Publish Date: 04/08/2022

Description

For fans of The Passenger, this thrilling tale of an ex-Nazi surgeon hiding in plain sight in 1960s London by the celebrated filmmaker is a lost noir gem, introduced by Anthony Quinn and narrated on audio by Mark Gatiss.

‘Stunning: incredibly good, tense and compelling and morally complex.’ Ian Rankin
‘This extraordinary novel had me hooked from start to finish.’ Sarah Waters
‘An outstanding novel: gripping, tense and darkly unsettling. ‘ Jonathan Freedland
‘A wonderfully compelling noir thriller and audacious and challenging act of imagination.’ William Boyd
‘One of the best London novels of the 20th century.’ Benjamin Myers

Nothing is more inviting to disclose your secrets than to be told by others of their own …

London, June 1965. Karl Braun arrives as a lodger in Pimlico: hatless, with a bow-tie, greying hair, slight in build. His new neighbours are intrigued by this cultured German gentleman who works as a piano tuner; many are fellow émigrés, who assume that he, like them, came to England to flee Hitler. That summer, Braun courts a woman, attends classical concerts, dances the twist. But as the newspapers fill with reports of the hunt for Nazi war criminals, his nightmares become increasingly worse .

‘A haunting, remarkable novel, as startlingly original as any of Pressburger’s films.’ Nicola Upson
‘A dark and harrowing window on the past: the ending will haunt your dreams.’ Janice Hallett

Additional information

Weight 243 g
Dimensions 198 × 129 × 17 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

304

Language

English

Edition

Reprint

Dewey

823.914 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K