The Valley of Unknowing
  • Published: 5 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9781446484852
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304
Categories:

The Valley of Unknowing

Formats & editions
EBook
5 Apr 2012
Paperback
15 Apr 2013
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'Amadeus meets The Lives of Others' (Kirkus) in a compelling story of love and rivalry set in the dying days of Communist East Germany.

In the twilight years of Communist East Germany, Bruno Krug, a womanising 'People’s Champion of Art and Culture' who once penned a world-famous novel, falls for Theresa Aden, a music student from the West. But Theresa has also caught the eye of a cocky young scriptwriter who delights in satirising Bruno’s more recent, tamer offerings.

Asked to appraise a mysterious manuscript, Bruno is disconcerted to find that the author is none other than his rival. Worse than that the book is good - very good - but also subtly subversive. If his pursuit of Theresa is to end in triumph, Bruno decides he must employ a small deception. However, in the paranoid labyrinth of a police state, knowing the deceiver from the deceived, the betrayer from the betrayed isn’t just difficult – it’s a matter of life and death.
  • Published: 5 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9781446484852
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304
Categories:

About the author

Philip Sington

Philip Sington was born in Cambridge. His father was an industrial chemist and his mother an officer in British Intelligence. After studying History at Trinity College, Cambridge he worked as a business journalist and magazine editor for nine years. He co-authored six novels under the joint pseudonym Patrick Lynch, selling well over a million copies worldwide. His solo novels include Zoia's Gold and The Einstein Girl. To date his work has been translated into twenty-one foreign languages. He lives in London with his family.

www.philipsington.com

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Praise for The Valley of Unknowing

Amadeus meets The Lives of Others in a compelling story of jealousy and betrayal behind the Iron Curtain

Kirkus (starred review)

The Valley of Unknowing is simply superb: affecting but never melodramatic, literary but never less than thrilling.

Financial Times

A remarkable novel, the first in English to give us a nuanced portrait of life in Communist East Germany, its absurdity, its menace, and its pervasive sense of betrayal

Joseph Kanon, author of The Good German

Authentic… Worth a look for the historical portrait alone

The Bookbag

Engrossing, occasionally brilliant

Irish Examiner

Extraordinary, sometimes very funny, and extremely evocative… Powerfully evocative

Peter Hitchens, Mail Online

Remarkable... Superbly anchored in place and time. A brilliant, evocative novel, a gripping hard-nosed authentic thriller

Peter Millar, The Times

Sington brilliantly captures what life in East Germany must have been like... Perfect

Chasingbawa