The Story of My Disappearance

This is a believable and compelling story about the violent and dangerous life of East German agents, recruited under pressure; threatened and beaten to carry out their assignments. The assignment of this guy is to spy on a friend, and later to be a courier in disguise in Newport, R.I. (smuggling things to and from a Russian submarine). This is where he is when the Wall comes down and has to decide what the heck to do when stranded in a free country with a fake ID. Everything about this caught me by surprise.

First, I do not believe there is anyone around right now who can write as well as Mr. Watkins. "Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn" I feel was his best, but this is darn close."My Disappearance" is written in the first person. The narrator (later named Paul Watkins) weaves the stories of his three lives - East German soldier/spy in Afghanistan, spy in America and lover in America - into a quilt made up of wonerfully woven words and twisting plotlines.From the first page, Watkins interjects a mysterious tensionthat trails through the book as is a constant undercurrent adding significantly to this yarn of a spy left in the cold when the Berlin Wall falls.I strongly recommend all of Watkins. This one should be one of the first and not to missed.

A terrific piece of work by Paul Watkins. This writer has crafted a wonderful story of love, horror and mystery so well plotted and with such splendid character development that this book is a must for new writers to study and a great read for thriller readers. From the very first line, you are hooked. I found this book on a new paperback carousel and read the first page. Boom, I'm a Watkins fan and as a developing writer myself, I find his style as easy to read as Scott B. Smith's "A Simple Plan." More, please, I say to Mr. Watkins.

In his latest novel, Watkins takes his characteristic hero, he who defines himself by action, into the previously uncharted landscape of sexual love. In this territory new to Watkins, he writes about the connection between man and woman with the same lyricism that has been applauded in his earlier fiction. While he has not deserted his familiar themes of the brutality of war and the isolation of all human beings, one senses a reprieve from loneliness in the story of The Story of My Disappearance, and that reprieve comes in the form of a challenging but profound connection with a woman as tough as the traditional Watkins hero. Tough but underneath as tender as her male counterpart and the relationship dished up in passages of lyrical prose that make the reader love them both. Watkins has been compared to Hemingway perhaps too many times. His existential themes continue in the Hemingway lineage, it is true, but his prose waxes romantic in the line of Fitzgerald, and the resulting blend is a fortuitous amalgam in American fiction.

A masterful novel filled with compelling characters, dense plot, and powerful language. Watkins once again breathes life into young men who struggle to come to terms with their past. From the first chapter, I was hooked, and not until the last page - and many, many intervening stories about his past - did I fully understand Peter Wedekind, the main character. Watkins deserves more attention than he is getting, and this is one of his best!