Role of History

This novel’s placement during the days surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall gives the reader not only some idea what life was like in that time period but also what it was like to be a spy at the end of the Cold War. Before the end of the cold war, spies were busy trying to secure sensitive information that could help their governments. The novel describes the difficulties in East and West Berlin, as well as the difficulties spies had in passing information from one side to the other. When the wall falls, a visible symbol of the end of the Cold War, the spies fear their usefulness is coming to an end.

Lorraine’s reason for being sent to Berlin is to get a piece of sensitive information, a list containing the names of all spies working in Berlin, for...