The Moment - Softcover

Kennedy, Douglas

3.95

4,481 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1451608594 ISBN 13: 9781451608595

Publisher: Atria Books, 2011

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#1 International Bestseller

"The Moment is utterly engrossing...Kennedy is astonishing at communicating his characters' emotional turmoil, the complexity of their situation, and the coldness of the Cold War...Highly recommended for all types of fiction readers." --Library Journal (starred review)

Thomas Nesbitt is a divorced writer in the midst of a rueful middle age. Living a very private life in Maine, in touch only with his daughter and still trying to recover from the end of a long marriage, his solitude is disrupted one wintry morning by the arrival of a box that is postmarked Berlin. The name on the box--Dussmann--unsettles him completely, for it belongs to the woman with whom he had an intense love affair twenty-six years ago in Berlin at a time when the city was cleaved in two and personal and political allegiances were frequently haunted by the deep shadows of the Cold War.

Refusing initially to confront what he might find in that box, Thomas nevertheless is forced to grapple with a past he has never discussed with any living person and in the process relive those months in Berlin when he discovered, for the first and only time in his life, the full, extraordinary force of true love. But Petra Dussmann, the woman to whom he lost his heart, was not just a refugee from a police state, but also someone who lived with an ongoing sorrow that gradually rewrote both their destinies.

A love story of great epic sweep and immense emotional power, The Moment explores why and how we fall in love--and the way we project on to others that which our hearts so desperately seek.

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Review:

"Kennedy is astonishing at communicating his characters' emotional turmoil . . . and he tosses tough ethical questions our way as he ponders the 'moment' that could change everything--and the very nature of love."
--Library Journal (starred review)

"The revelation in the middle is the kind of gut-punch that subverts everything its narrator has found out so far--without destabilizing the rich, dark novel in progress."
--The Onion's A.V. Club

"An observant, compassionate, and romantic portrait." --Publishers Weekly

"Kennedy's narrative virtuosity drives a story that blends romance and thrills in the right proportion. . . . The sense of place is palpable."
--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"The denouement will have you feeling about as intense as printed words can make you."
--The Times (UK)

"Douglas Kennedy vividly re-creates the tense atmosphere of a Berlin cut into two by the Wall. As the book moves between times and narrators, we too can marvel at the changes that have taken place since reunification - and understand the long-lasting effects of the evils that were perpetrated by both sides under the old regime." --Historical Novel Society

"A passionate love-story-cum-spy-thriller set amid the secrets and shadows of Cold War-era West Berlin."--People

Book Description:

A secret from the past can change your life for ever. A heart-breaking love story set in Cold War Berlin by the author of The Pursuit of Happiness and Five Days.

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