Neither Five nor Three

By: Helen MacInnes

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

Paul Haydn was on his way home at last, to New York and the civilian life he longed for after years of war. Yet he would never forget the tormented people, desperate for refuge in Berlin. They had survived the war—but now a new, sinister presence threatened them, their families, the whole of society.

Now he discovered that, back home, some of his former colleagues had dangerous political sympathies, that someone was trying to discredit the woman he had once loved. The pattern seemed suddenly familiar. He began to realize why there was such interest in his counter-propaganda skills.

©2013 Helen MacInnes (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Relevant, vintage

Great writer! From 1951 but many parallels with 2020’s. Excellent study in propaganda, persuasion and mind control. Grabs you and keeps you. Writer understood daily life with small kids.

Description of a fraught post war period and the remaking of lives, careers and a political structure under attack.

Liked the characters and the analytic narrative of NYC rebuilding and changing and the way different political beliefs were struggling for new powers in a post war era.