Books in chronological order

jdarnoldjdarnold
edited August 2013 in Root
Has anyone done a list of the BG books in chronological order, rather than published order? Kerr jumps around quite a bit in the last few books, after seemingly reached the end of his career in If The Dead Rise Not. Where do Field Gray, Prague Fatale and Man Without Breath fit into the series, historically speaking?

Comments

  • michaelmichael
    edited August 2016
    Here are the books in chronological order (published order in parenthesis).

    Note that some of the books are are set in more than one time period. The date given below is the date of the beginning of the book.

    1934 If the Dead Rise Not (6)
    1936 March Voilets (1)
    1938 The Pale Criminal (2)
    1941 Prague Fatale (8)
    1942 The Lady from Zagreb (10)
    1943 A Man Without Breath (9)
    1947 A German Requiem (3)
    1949 The One From The Other (4)
    1950 A Quiet Flame (5)
    1954 Field Gray (7)
    1956 The Other Side of Silence (11)
  • dfergusodferguso
    Been saving up the BG books to binge-read and now's the time. Any suggestions what order to read them - chronological by subject, publication date or something else?
  • michaelmichael
    I just reread them all again (the Berlin Noir books for the 3rd time!) and I think the published order is the only way to go.

    I also recommend rereading these books, they were more enjoyable each time I read them because there's so much in them that you may miss some things the first time around.
  • KenKen
    Which is the best way to read these books, pub.date or chronological order, and why?
    Thanks
  • ModeratorsModerators
    We recommend reading the books in the order in which they were written. The list Michael wrote above is a little misleading. Some of the books have flashbacks, which means there are early years but also later years in the same book. So there is really no way to accurately read them in chronological order (Bernie's chronological time) because the timelines skip around within some of the books. For that reason we think first-time readers are better off getting to know Bernie in the way Philip Kerr presented him.
  • kristvanmakristvanma
    Just rereading all books now in the published order. This is, according to me, the best way to read them... This is also the chronological order untill 'Field Grey'. 'Prague Fatale' is the first Bernie book that does not really follow the chronological order, where 'Man without breath' follows 'Prague Fatale'... So, we bernie-adepts, just have to wait till there is a chronological sequel of 'Field Grey'. (Where i actually wonder if this will ever be the case, as 'Field Grey' ends in 1954... and the war is finished...)
  • duncantmacdonellduncantmacdonell
    I'm glad I read "Field Grey" last because if I had read it first I would not have read the other books and missed out on a lot of information and quotes.
  • riccricc
    does anyone else agree that after If the Dead Rise Not (6) the last 3 have dropped off greatly in quality? at least from my point of view they have all the markings of a written to order for a publisher's schedule type of work.
  • riccricc
    BTW does anybody have any current info on the proposed HBO serialisation of the books? the latest info i have is from 2012.....& in case they ever do make them, i would like to propose liev schreiber for the part
  • PhilipPhilip
    I have read them (up to Field Grey) in the order suggested by Michael (above) and found it works very well. Field Grey begins with Bernie's exit from South America and ends with his exit from Berlin in the 1950s, so that works very well, and leads nicely into The Other Side of Silence. To me this seems less confusing than reading them in the published order.
  • Swedish_LogicianSwedish_Logician
    I have just been (re-)reading the entire series; the chronological list posted above by Michael was quite helpful for keeping tabs on where BG is.

    It struck me that it would be very nice to have a timeline, indicating where, at what location, Bernie is at what time, etc.

    If anyone has worked out such a timeline, please share!
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