A Amante de Brecht

"Inspired by a photograph of the playwright Bertolt Brecht and an unknown young woman, Jacques-Pierre Amette constructs a tale of ambition and betrayal, set during the final years of the greatest playwright of the twentieth century. This fictional story evokes the grim world of postwar East Germany and depicts personal destinies intertwined with superpower rivalry." Amette's novel opens on October 22, 1948: the day Brecht returns from exile to the Soviet-controlled zone in Berlin. Despite Brecht's abiding communist sympathies, the Stasi - East Germany's notorious secret police force - suspects his motives and recruits the young and vulnerable Viennese actress Maria Eich to spy on him, photograph the contents of his desk, and make regular reports. Eich has fallen in love with her Stasi recruiting officer, Hans Trow, but, driven in part by her desire to become a famous actress, she allows herself to end up as just another in a string of mistresses of the womanizing Brecht.