Description

Berlin, 1946. During one of the coldest winters on record, Pavel Richter, a decommissioned GI, finds himself at odds with a rogue British Army colonel and a Soviet General when a friend deposits the frozen body of a dead Russian spy in his apartment. So begins the race to take possession of the spy’s secret, a race which threatens Pavel’s friendship with a street orphan named Anders and his budding love for Sonia, his enigmatic upstairs neighbour. As the action hurtles towards catastrophe, the hunt merges with one for the truth about the novel’s protagonist: who exactly is Pavel Richter?

Publisher Review

'Writing in the tradition of Graham Greene and John le Carre, Vyleta throws a nod to Oliver Twist and Albert Camus in this stylish update of the Cold War spy thriller ... a proper page-turner' Metro 'A gripping espionage thriller very much in the uncertain, paranoid vein of The Third Man ... It keeps you hooked on its mysteries by rationing the truth more severely than its characters' coffee ... an entirely guilt-free treat' Independent 'An espionage thriller, complete with double-crosses, torture, prostitution, a monkey and summary executions ... There is much to like about this book' The Times 'Pavel & I is a hybrid of literary writing and spy novel - a kind of postmodern pastiche of Raymond Chandler that is irreverently humorous and inventive with language' Time Out