The Informer »

CRAIG NOVA is the author of ten novels and has received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is also the recipient of NEA and Guggenheim fellowships. His writing has appeared in Esquire, Paris Review, New York Times Magazine, and other publications.

Berlin in 1930 is a city of dark paranoia and covert power struggles, where violence can erupt at any moment. The Brownshirts dominate the streets, but the Red Front is building its insurgence.

Gaelle, a beautiful but desperate young prostitute with a scar across one side of her face, trades in something far more powerful—and dangerous—than sex: information. To possess her, men will do more than pay—they will tell her secrets. What Gaelle wants is protection.

Felix, a sixteen-year-old boy with a lame foot, negotiates Gaelle’s price, accompanies her in limousines when she feels threatened, and reminds her to take care of herself. But can he really keep her from harm?

Armina Treffen is an investigator for the Berlin Police. Several women’s bodies have been found in the park, murdered in the same manner, and Armina, too, seeks Gaelle’s confidence to help her catch a serial killer.

Even as Gaelle tries to protect herself by possessing information, she becomes more entangled in a complex web of politics and murder in a city in which men will go to any length to maintain the power of silence.

In this taut literary thriller, acclaimed author Craig Nova masterfully captures the menace and malice of pre-war Berlin through the eyes of characters dealing with forces far beyond their control.

The Washington Post - Stephen Amidon

…Nova admirably combines the virtues of serious literature with a gripping, thriller-like account of sexual and political treachery. His spare prose keeps the reader's eyes locked on the story, even as it occasionally erupts into striking elegance…Although The Informer contains enough suspense to keep the pages turning as if they have been caught in a stiff breeze, its central characters never feel shallow or mechanical. Armina is a particularly fine creation, a woman whose loneliness finds an eerie echo in the fate of the prostitutes whose murders she investigates.