“A Woman in Berlin” is the diary of a thirty-four year old German woman, a successful journalist who wrote an eye-witness account of the Soviet conquest of Berlin. Her diary starts on April 20, 1945. Berlin contained about 2,000,000 people, mostly civilians, many women and children. Advancing toward Berlin is a 1,500,000-man Soviet army, all battle-hardened, well-trained, and well-equipped soldiers.

Her first entry in her diary is “It’s true the war is rolling toward Berlin. What was yesterday a distant rumble has now become a constant roar. Our fate is rolling in from the East, and it will transform our entire climate, like another Ice Age.” Seven days later, the Russians are at her door. She is raped along with many other women in Berlin.

To protect herself from repeated rapes, the young German woman seeks a relationship with a Russian officer: “Alliance with a big wolf will keep the rest of the pack away!” It worked to some extent. She was still forcibly raped, but not as often as she would have been without the protection of the officer. In her diary, she criticized the retreating German army for leaving liquor behind in hope that a drunken army can no longer wage war. “Don’t the Nazis realize what drunken soldiers would do to captured women?” The adulation Berliners once had for Hitler, when he seemed invincible, now becomes: “No pole is too high (to hang him).”

She describes the forced labor to dismantle factories and ship the machines and supplies by rail to Russia. She also relates other observations: “I long ago lost my childhood piety so that God and the Beyond have become mere symbols and abstractions.” “Why does a cross on a grave affect us if we no longer call ourselves Christian?” Her diary ends on June 22, 1945. Her last entry is about her boyfriend: “Does Gerd still think of me? Maybe we’ll find our way back to each other yet.”

After the war, the young woman typed her handwritten notes and had them published in the 1950’s. Her diary was not well received in Germany. She then remained out of the public eye for her remaining years. The woman survived to be ninety, dying in 2001. Her diary is another vivid eye-witness account of civilian’s experience when their whole world collapses around them. You will find this book eye-opening and sobering.

After reading reviews of Louise Welsh's first book The Cutting Room, I added her to my mental list of authors I needed to try out. However that list is a very long one, and the Bullet Trick only emerged as a contender when I put it in the options for the staff book group where I work. I usually put about four books on the list and normally one stands out but this time we were torn, and actually not that enthusiastic, however as I passed other members of the group in the corridors at work I kept being told "i'm really enjoying this, but I don't think I would have picked this up normally", also "she writes like a man!"

Both of these sentiments I totally agree with. Apart from McIllvaney's Laidlaw and Ian Rankin's Rebus books I don't think i've ever gone out of my way to read something classified as "crime". Although i'm a librarian i'm not that keen on genre labelling and I think The Bullet Trick could live without being stuck on a dedicated Crime shelf as it was in my local library. It is certainly a compelling book, a definite page-turner and I felt plenty of edgyness and tension, to the point that I considered putting the book down before I went to sleep as I was worried I was about to read something that was going to keep me awake a little longer than I wanted!

The story moves between Glasgow and Berlin, via London. The main character is a Glaswegian conjurer who has seen better days. A series of events, lead him from London to Berlin and then back to his home town of Glasgow, where he reaches an all time low. It is the Berlin story, that is told as we are following his downward spiral in Glasgow, that provides the real tension. The characters are particularly well written and it is the portrayal of the main protagonist that had me agreeing with the sentiment that it felt like it was written by a man. But basically that just means that Welsh is a good enough writer to create a totally believable character of the opposite sex.

I enjoyed the story, the style of writing, and I particulary liked the characterisation, but I have a small, but nagging feeling of disappointment with regards the ending. Can't put my finger on it, and it certainly wouldn't stop me recommending the book, but maybe I just expected a little bit more. However, this is an enjoyable and compelling enough read to leave me wanting to try more of Louise Welsh's work.