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Flowers from Berlin
- Narrated by: George Kuch
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
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Flowers from Berlin
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Summary
This 1985 espionage thriller follows FBI agent William Cochran's efforts to stop a Nazi spy from assassinating FDR. Toss in a love affair with a British Secret Service operative and you have the makings of a pause-resister.
It is 1939. Roosevelt is winding down his second term in the White House. The Nazis have taken Austria, and Stalin's Red Army is systematically eliminating the Kremlin's enemies. Europe is going to hell in a handbasket. With isolationist sentiment running high in America, and the president's popularity at an all-time low, Hitler seizes the moment and dispatches his secret weapon: An agent named "Siegfried" who conceals himself behind the mask of middle-class America. A chameleon who can change identities and personalities at will. A cold-blooded killer who will win the war for Germany. A banker, linguist, and demolitions expert who has successfully infiltrated German intelligence, FBI Special Agent Thomas Cochrane is handpicked by Roosevelt for an impossible mission: to find Hitler's spy before he carries out a plan that will remove the president from office at a critical moment in the century's history. As Cochrane, with the help of British Intelligence agent Laura Worthington, circles closer to his elusive quarry, a spy with supporters in the highest levels of U.S. government readies the world stage for a final act of annihilation that will alter the tide of war - and the future of the free world - in unthinkable ways.
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Flowers from Berlin
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Norma Miles
- 15-04-20
No such thing as coincidence in this work.
An excellent synopsis has already been given so there will be no further rehearsal of the story.
The characters are all provided with full back histories and are well developed and, set in the pre war period for the United States, the action feels feasible, exciting and dreadful.
Narration by the excellent George Kuch brings everything further to life with his fine performance.
For readers who enjoy detailed spy stories and accurate historical locations, this is a great book and highly recommended. Good, too, for thriller fans
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ghost Reader
- 30-10-14
Terrific Nazi Spy Novel
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes.
Any additional comments?
But spoiled by a terrible reader. Not does he mispronounce the German words, he can't even pronounce the English ones (paradigm, allay, etc.). And he can't put the emphasis on the right word either. Then there's the grating Brooklyn accent.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gary L. Richardson
- 20-09-15
Slow to Start But Builds Steam as is Goes
The story starts off a little slow as characters are built and story lines are established but once you get into the meat of the story, it turns into a nice WWII espionage tale. FBI, British SAS, NAZI's all mixed into a tale of intrigue. This is one of those stories for a winters afternoon when you want to get lost in a good book to forget the cold gray day outside.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Howie
- 17-12-14
Great WWII Story, Historical Fiction.......
Mixes well with actual events and characters such Admiral Canaris and the Abwehr. Went into it with no expectations and really enjoyed the story, well told with numerous subplots some more fast paced than others.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 18-06-23
In the Weeds
To be kind, the promise of a good plot made this almost worth suffering thru…but between a terrible narrator and the authors need to use unnecessary words constantly, it was a slog to get to the end. Clearly, a third of this book could have been removed and it would have delivered a much more intense story line…but the author filled pages as if he were being paid by the word. If you are hoping for Alan Furst, don’t listen to this book. I’m very disappointed in that I really liked the main 2 characters but I just can’t bring myself to purchase the sequels. Narration was like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard and the verbose prose left me more annoyed than satisfied.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- bgrant
- 09-03-23
Exciting Story Ruined by Narrator
I am very generous with my reviews, but this narrator was awful. Granted, he is possessed with a pleasant timbre to his voice, yet his attempt to imitate or produce any foreign accent is painful. In fact, after the first attempt, he stops and gives the character an American accent for the rest of the novel. He can't even pronounce the German W as a V! so he says warmacht instead of vermacht. It is all too painful, especially when British characters are introduced.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 15-01-21
Disappointed
Hard to evaluate the story because the reader was so bad. Odd speaking cadence. Mispronounced both English and German words. Made it to the end but just barely.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Joyce Eriksen
- 03-12-20
Good not great.
The story line is very uneven and does not flow well. The narrater is not a bad reader but is not well versed in English. He very much needs to expand his pronunciation. Wilkes bar? Wan to rhyme with van.
This book suffers from poor editing.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- NE124
- 03-07-20
Ok story...
But a terrible narrator whose mispronunciations are jarring. A bit preachy and simplistic but still inter.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Allenby
- 02-09-18
Pronunciation problems
You'd expect the narrator of a book named "Flowers from Berlin" to have a basic understanding of German pronunciation. In fact, it's probably safe to say that most educated English speakers know that the German letter w is pronounced like an English v. So there's little excuse for the narrator's constant repetition of "ab-whar" (for abwehr) or "where-mak" (for wehrmacht). Frequent mispronunciations of English words ("panalopy" for panoply, "nonpulsed" for nonplused, "obstensibly" for ostensibly) also distract from the story. Doesn't the publisher have an editor?
The story itself is okay as a routine spy thriller but isn't top-drawer.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- darlys
- 21-05-16
A truly great piece of historical fiction
Having always been intrigued by the second world war, this novel was a treat to finish. The story is powerful and fascinating. The what-ifs left me speechless. The narration was good, but it was the story, the thoughts and ideas that people had in the years leading up to the US involvement, that captivated me. Yes, it is a story of espionage, but it is so much more. A must read in my opinion.
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