2005 book 23

nicholas shakespeare's snowleg
this is one of those searching-for-identity and searching-for-lost-love stories all combined with heady political chaos in east and west germany in the 1980s (shakespeare does seem to like the male characters getting stuck in political intrigue while longing for some woman or another). anyway, the main character here is a british boy named peter, who discovers on his 16th birthday that the man who has raised him is not his father, but that his biological father is a german prisoner who his mother knew for just one day. this spurs him to study in germany, where on a weekend trip to leipzig, he falls in love with the titular character and then publicly disavows her--something he regrets for the next twenty-plus years, and something that poisons all of his relationships, including those with his family. the end is not entirely unpredictable but is still ultimately satisfying--for most of the book, i kept thinking, "i liked the dancer upstairs better," but by the end, i was pretty pleased with this story.