A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne

I have always had a particular fondness for meta-fiction, and love reading books about writing books. This is a particularly delicious example of the genre.

The book opens with celebrated author Erich Ackerman returning to West Berlin in 1988 to promote his latest novel, Dread, which had recently won a prestigious literary award (known simply as ‘The Prize’, although presumably modelled on the Booker). Erich had been born in Germany in the 1920s, and had been a reluctant member of the Hitler Youth, and then fought in the German army during the Second World War. After the war, he had relocated to England where he had studied literature at Cambridge before going on to teach English at a local school. Meanwhile he had continued his studies, and upon securing his doctorate he also landed an academic post at his old college, subsequently becoming a professor of modern literature. Dread had been his sixth novel, and first critical and commercial success, and he was starting to enjoy the trappings that relative celebrity had brought.

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