Agent in Berlin: An Interview with Alex Gerlis

The author of the acclaimed The Wolf Pack series chatted with us about his novel, Agent in Berlin.

Alex, Agent in Berlin opens with the attack on Pearl Harbor – you’ve described it brilliantly – did you research provide you with first hand accounts of this shocking event?

With Pearl Harbor, I was more concerned to get the details of the day correct, especially the chronology and the names and locations of the ships that were hit by the Japanese. I try to avoid eye witness accounts of specific events because I’m always concerned that I could subconsciously use those experiences instead of those of the characters in the book. I relied on my imagination for much of this chapter, helped and inspired – by my research.

The 1936 Olympics also features. We now view it as unprecedented, a blatant propaganda exercise by Hitler. Was that how it was viewed both prior and during the Games?

My sense is that most of the participants probably realised they were being ‘played’ but didn’t really care too much about it. They were most likely just grateful that the Games were well organised and with state-of-the-art facilities. Unfortunately, we’ve seen that too often with events like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, where the organisers and participating countries seem happy enough to turn a blind eye to the excesses of the host country. After all, only a few years ago the World Cup took place in Qatar, of all places.