You don't always get what you wish for. Especially in Nazi Germany

In the basement of 33 Himmel Street, Max Vandenburg could feel the fists of an entire nation. One by one they climbed into the ring to beat him down. They made him bleed. They let him suffer. Millions of them - until one last time, when he gathered himself to his feet.

It is early, early morning. It's that time when it's still dark but you know the day is coming. Blue is bleeding through black. Stars are dying.

There were not many people who could say that their education had been paid for with cigarettes.

Failure has been my best friend as a writer. It tests you, to see if you have what it takes to see it through.

If you can't imagine it, think clumsy silence. Think bits and pieces of floating despair. And drowning in a train.

..As always, she was carrying the washing. Rudy was carrying two buckets of cold water, or as he put it, two buckets of future ice.