Australian writer Gail Jones’s new novel may borrow its title from a short story written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1925 when he was living in the German capital, but it’s the process at work in his autobiography, Speak, Memory, that links her characters. Two Italians, two Japanese, an American and an Australian meet in empty apartments in the city, taking it in turns to transform the memories of their past into a story told to the group. Travellers far from home, this “narrative pact” initially offers them a welcome connection, binding them “irreversibly to each other”. Then, following a terrible act of violence that rips through their otherwise peaceful existence, these ties that bind become claustrophobic and damning. The city itself, full of “historical gravity”, seeps into the fabric of Jones’s story, her evocation of the bitter Berlin winter beautifully drawn. A thoughtful study of the machinations of memory.
A Guide to Berlin is published by Harvill Secker (£14.99). Click here to order it for £11.99
