The Valley of Unknowing

Bruno Krug, celebrated writer and secret Stasi informant, is ready to confess... In the twilight years of the communist regime in East Germany, Bruno Krug, author and People's Champion of Art and Culture, falls for Theresa Aden, a music student from the West. But Theresa has also caught the eye of a cocky young scriptwriter who seems to delight in satirising Krug's latter-day offerings. When Bruno discovers that a mysterious manuscript his editor has asked him to appraise is the work of his rival he finds himself in a quandary. Disconcertingly, the book turns out to be good - very good. But there is hope for the older man: the unwelcome masterpiece is also dangerously political. If his affair with Theresa is to prove more than a brief adventure, the enamoured Krug decides he must employ a small deception. But in the Workers' and Peasants' State, knowing the deceiver from the deceived, the betrayer from the betrayed, isn't just difficult: it can be a matter of life and death. IThe Valley of Unkowing/I is both a moving and entertaining love story and a compelling thriller that pits the past against the future, commerce against creativity, and art against life.