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Authors: Nigel Farndale

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The Road Between Us (52 page)

BOOK: The Road Between Us
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‘Anselm Walser, 1944,’ the Englishman says, reading out loud. ‘Who was your subject?’

‘His name was Manfred. Manfred Hahn. He was the commandant of the camp. No one knows what became of him. He was a brutal man but also a cultivated one. Before the war he had been a professor of philosophy. He was good to me.’

‘In what way?’

‘He let me live.’

As they stand with their backs to him, studying the painting, Friedrich becomes distracted by the Beatles’ singing in the other room. He looks over his shoulder. They are singing about someone called Eleanor Rigby who picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been. When his gaze returns to the room, he sees his father’s hand reach for the Englishman’s.

He then shrugs and runs back outside to kick his new football against the wall.

Acknowledgements

Above all, I would like to thank Marianne Velmans, my editor at Doubleday, David Miller, my agent at Rogers, Coleridge & White, and Mary, my wife, for all their patience, encouragement and wisdom. I am also grateful to Emma Howard, Chris Lang, Gillian Stern and Suzanne Bridson for their close reading and perceptive comments, and to Ben Lyster-Binns, the British Ambassador to Uruguay, for his steer on Foreign Office protocol.

About the Author

Nigel Farndale
is the author of
The Blasphemer
, which was shortlisted for the 2010 Costa Novel Award. His previous books include
Haw-Haw: the Tragedy of William and Margaret Joyce
, which was shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Biography Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He lives on the Hampshire–Sussex border with his wife and their three sons.

www.nigelfarndale.com

Also by Nigel Farndale

Fiction
The Blasphemer
A Sympathetic Hanging

Non-fiction
Haw-Haw: the Tragedy of William and Margaret Joyce
Flirtation, Seduction, Betrayal: Interviews with Heroes and Villains
Last Action Hero of the British Empire:
Commander John Kerans, 1915–1985

TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS
61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
A Random House Group Company
www.transworldbooks.co.uk

First published in Great Britain
in 2013 by Doubleday
an imprint of Transworld Publishers

Copyright © Nigel Farndale 2013

Nigel Farndale has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781448167586

ISBNs 9780385619134 (hb)

9780385619141 (tpb)

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Addresses for Random House Group Ltd companies outside the UK can be found at:
www.randomhouse.co.uk
The Random House Group Ltd Reg. No. 954009

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BOOK: The Road Between Us
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