I was a bit bored with this to start with...it seemed sort of plodding, and I wasn't very interested in the characters. The rise of Hitler, the Anschluss, and so on, all felt very predictable and formulaic. Somehow it came alive for me when the consequences of the main male character's affair with a Jewish Viennese prostitute started to play out, and by the end I was moved and engaged. Not sure that I will be reading any more Simon Mawer though.
