The Spring of Kasper Meier: ‘Beguiling, unsettling, and wonderfully atmospheric’ (Sarah Waters)

Written by Ben Fergusson

Narrated by Leighton Pugh

The war is over, but Berlin is a desolate sea of rubble. There is a shortage of everything: food, clothing, tobacco. The local population is scrabbling to get by. Kasper Meier is one of these Germans, and his solution is to trade on the black market to feed himself and his elderly father. He can find anything that people need, for the right price. Even other people.

When a young woman, Eva, arrives at Kasper's door seeking the whereabouts of a British pilot, he feels a reluctant sympathy for her but won't interfere in military affairs. But Eva is prepared for this. Kasper has secrets, she knows them, and she'll use them to get what she wants. As the threats against him mount, Kasper is drawn into a world of intrigue he could never have anticipated. Why is Eva so insistent that he find the pilot? Who is the shadowy Frau Beckmann and what is her hold over Eva?

Under constant surveillance, Kasper navigates the dangerous streets and secrets of a city still reeling from the horrors of war and defeat. As a net of deceit, lies and betrayal falls around him, Kasper begins to understand that the seemingly random killings of members of the occupying forces are connected to his own situation. He must work out who is behind Eva's demands, and why - while at the same time trying to save himself, his father and Eva.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Release date: Jul 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781405530750

Ben Fergusson

Ben Fergusson's debut novel, The Spring of Kasper Meier, was awarded the Betty Trask Prize and the HWA Debut Crown, and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. The Other Hoffmann Sister and An Honest Man complete a trilogy of novels set in the same apartment block in Berlin at key moments in the city's twentieth-century history. His short fiction has been published in journals internationally and in 2020 he won the Seán O'Faoláin International Short Story Prize. He also translates from German, winning a 2020 Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation. Ben lives in Berlin with his husband and son.

Reviews for The Spring of Kasper Meier

[annbury_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

)A wonderful book. It is not at all the usual thriller: the hero is gay and gets beaten up and shot regularly.
It is well written and I cared about the main characters and read it at one or two sittings. The atmosphere of 1946 Berlin is wonderfully described, even though the author is far too young to have witnessed it.
The plot involves an old boyfriend of the hero who is a big deal in the black market, and who poses as an old German woman who takes in girls and then sets them to killing the many soldier rapists who are in the city. Our hero gets involved because one of these girls approaches him to ask if he will find the name of a RAF pilot.(The girls never kill their own rapist and they use people like Kasper to get the information they need, thus avoiding risk) Frau Beckmann, the old German woman, supposedly has two
twins, Hans and Lena who are as murderous as anyone in fiction. They give Kasper a hard time and eventually kill his old boyfriend, who tried tto entrap Kasper. Although Kasper is gay, he and the girl escape to America.

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Spring of Kasper Meier – Excellent Debut Novel

The Spring of Kasper Meier is the stunning debut from English writer Ben Fergusson written with an atmospheric panache where the prose breathes the imagery from the page to your brain. This is a stylistic masterpiece from the debut novelist whose writing is clear and crisp dealing with the shattered lives of those living in Berlin and the evocation of those shattered lives trying to survive. To me this reminded me of Alone in Berlin which dealt with the fear and suspicion in wartime Berlin this deals with the aftermath of war and the death of Hitler did not mean fear and suspicion had disappeared.

Kasper Meier and his father have somehow survived not only survived through the Third Reich but the Battle for Berlin and the Russians entering their City and taking it the battle to every street and every home. Kasper had survived the Third Reich even though he practised what was called ‘deviant’ behaviour, because he was gay, when many of his friends had been killed by the state. He was now surviving on his wits by trading on the black market for goods or information he could trade on and at the same time get a little food to survive for his father and himself.

One day Eva Hirsch comes knocking on Kasper’s door and she requests his help in searching for a British pilot but he is not interested in getting involved with any of the military affairs of any of the victorious countries running Berlin. But the mysterious Frau Beckmann has prepared Eva for this and she knows his secret of him being gay and how that could get him killed still, even after the Third Reich.

Slowly Kasper is drawn in to a world he had no idea that existed and that was very dangerous especially when you always under constant surveillance by friend and foe. He tries to find out who Frau Beckmann is and how she is controlling so many girls, what hold has she got. The more he digs in to Beckmann the threats against him increase as does the violence. At the same time he realised the most of the women Beckmann has power over have been raped by the invading armies and specifically the Russians.

With the devastation of the war and the horrors that it brought to the citizens of Berlin and their final defeat there is still a net of lies and deceit that is round every corner of the Berlin Streets. Nothing is as it seems and Kasper needs to work this out if he wishes to survive and keep Eva safe. As Kasper realises that the random killings of members of the occupied forces are connected to what he is doing he really needs to find Frau Beckmann.

He really needs to work out who is behind the blackmailing of both him and Eva at first he didn’t realise how much that would cost him. Will he survive at times he is not too sure it is as if not only the defeat of Germany is hurting him but the memories of those who didn’t survive.

As he works out who is behind the various killings it becomes a race against Frau Beckmann to survive and escape her evil clutches and at the same time avoid the attention of the occupying forces. He knows that this may cost him his life but he wants to keep Eva and his father alive.

This is an atmospheric and gripping mystery in what was the ‘wild east’ as Berlin had become once it had fallen to the Russians. The terrifying world of post-war Berlin where the women had suffered, and had been raped at the hands of the Russians. The population of Berlin are struggling to survive women are the majority of the German population as many of the men are in POW camps in the east and the men that are left are not the most dynamic bunch of survivors.

Post-war Berlin was a wild and evil place to be after the war if you were German and female there was so little disregard for life because of what had happened during the war years. This novel based on life as it had been after the war and the struggle to survive at the hands of the victors is well researched and shows understand of the fears of those that had managed to survive.

Ben Fergusson’s prose is wonderful and gives a powerful and atmospheric evocation of post-war Berlin and the devastation comes through strongly. The imagery that Fergusson’s prose gives brings the City and its survivors to life and you can feel their fear and their daily battles to survive. This is a stunning debut that draws you in and you feel at the centre of everything that is happening.

[mexico24 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was intrigued when this was sent to me by Love Reading .co.uk and is due to be published in July 2014. This did not disappoint.

This is the debut novel for the author Ben Fergusson and is a wow for me, a great new author with fantastic potential.

This thriller has a different slant on World War 2 as this is set in the aftermath of war torn Berlin. Things are desperate as everything is in short supply and people are trying to get by, by any means.

The story is set in 1946; the main character is Kasper a German living with his father in a bleak mangled city which had been bombed furiously by the allies. Kasper is involved in the black market, and is trying to protect his aging father and his secrets.

Kasper receives a knock on the door from a lady called Eva. She almost looks upon Kasper as a private detective as she feels he can find people. She is trying to find a pilot for a friend. The friend is pregnant as a result of an affair she had with the pilot.
Eva is looking for a pilot for a friend of hers who had an affair with the pilot and is now pregnant.

This is dark, gritty, and visually terrible as buildings and architecture has been destroyed beyond recognition. The author recounts a good historical account of post war Berlin.

I can see this being in the top ten on publication.