Thomas Berger was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 20 July 1924. He was educated at the University of Cincinnati, where he received his B.A. in 1948, and he did graduate work at Columbia University (1950-1951). Between 1948 and 1954, Berger served as librarian at the Rand School of Social Science, staff writer for the New York Times Index, and associate editor of Popular Science Monthly. He married Jeanne Redpath in 1950. His first novel, Crazy in Berlin (1958), had its roots in his experiences in the United States Army between 1943 and 1946. The book was received with a modicum of critical comment, but with publication of its sequel, Reinhart in Love (1962), and Little Big Man (1964), which won the Rosenthal Award in 1965, Berger established himself as an important voice in American comic fiction.

Crazy in Berlin revolves around the experiences of Carlo Reinhart, a young American soldier in post-World War II Germany. Reinhart is swept up...