Ben Fergusson
Author of The Spring of Kasper Meier
Series
Works by Ben Fergusson
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1980
- Gender
- male
- Short biography
- Ben Fergusson is a writer, editor and translator. Born in Southampton in 1980, he studied English Literature at Warwick University and Modern Languages at Bristol University, and has worked for ten years as an editor and publisher in the art world. His short fiction has appeared in publications in both the UK and the US and has won and been shortlisted for a range of prizes, including the 2010 Bridport Prize. From 2009-2010 he edited the literary journal Chroma and since 2013 has been the editor of the short story magazine Oval Short Fiction. Currently based in London, his first novel, The Spring of Kasper Meier, was written during a four-year period living and working in Berlin. [Hachette]
Members
Reviews
1 
adrianburke | 3 other reviews | Mar 30, 2020 |
adrianburke | 3 other reviews | Mar 30, 2020 | 
An unusual friendship Kasper Meier is at the centre of this pager turner. The novel is set in Berlin in 1946; you can see, hear and smell the city of rubble, ruin and wretchedness. Kasper is a former gay nightclub owner, now a black marketeer who lives with his ill father.
Kasper's world is upended when Eva Hirsch turns up with a request to find a British pilot. Kasper finds the pilot but also a racket that exemplifies a society in which respect for the law and other people is non existent.
Kasper's growing platonic affection for Eva evolves along with the increasing tension that culminates in an ending I didn't see coming.
This book is the first of three in which the protagonist lives in the same Berlin apartment block. I've read A Handsome Man, which I also highly recommend.… (more)
Kasper's world is upended when Eva Hirsch turns up with a request to find a British pilot. Kasper finds the pilot but also a racket that exemplifies a society in which respect for the law and other people is non existent.
Kasper's growing platonic affection for Eva evolves along with the increasing tension that culminates in an ending I didn't see coming.
This book is the first of three in which the protagonist lives in the same Berlin apartment block. I've read A Handsome Man, which I also highly recommend.… (more)
Awards
Statistics
- Works
- 6
- Members
- 137
- Popularity
- #149,084
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 11
- ISBNs
- 18
- Languages
- 2
How often do we think about the defeated side in a war? Ben Fergusson’s book certainly does that. Set in Berlin in 1946 the inhabitants of a city reduced to rubble struggle to survive. Kasper Meier is a trader of sorts; he can sell or exchange anything that comes his way and he’s not fussy about where his goods come from.
He lives in one of the few intact buildings in his neighbourhood, taking care of his ailing father and trying to keep them both fed and make enough to pay the rent.
Life is tough enough for this gay man in a broken city but when a girl called Eva blackmails him in order to get help in tracing a British airman and two children follow and threaten him life gets even more daunting.
Foreign servicemen are being murdered in the city and there may be a connection to Eva’s request. Kasper gets pulled in to some highly dangerous events while at the same time getting attached to the girl.
The author does a magnificent job in evoking the atmosphere, people and landscape of a city not yet functioning in the aftermath of total war. His writing is pitch perfect, conveying the menace and sheer terror which survivors must navigate as they try to come to terms with defeat.… (more)