THE INNOCENT by Ian McEwan

Leonard is an Englishman in his mid-twenties who was living with his parents when he was reassigned to a top secret project in Berlin.  It’s the 1950s, and the Berlin Wall has not been constructed yet.  A British/American team is tunneling under East Berlin with some sophisticated communications equipment so that they can eavesdrop on the Russians.  Leonard is naïve in many ways, including romance, shows signs of poor judgment, and is easily manipulated.  He falls in love with a divorced German woman, Maria, whose ex-husband still beats her up from time to time.  This fact alone would seem to be a red flag, but Leonard is no saint, either, imagining that Maria would enjoy being sexually assaulted.  What??  He is well aware that the Russians often raped civilian women as they swept into Germany after WWII.  Leonard’s wrong-headedness is not a matter of being innocent at all and totally defies logic.  In other words, Leonard is not the most lovable protagonist, and his behavior becomes even more appalling as the novel progresses.  In fact, he’s something of a bumbling idiot, but McEwan is known for his clueless characters who just seem to dig themselves into a deeper and deeper hole.  This and other underground tunnel metaphors abound, including the dark nature of this novel.