Downing’s plot centers around John Russell, a divorced British freelance journalist “who’s been living and working in Berlin for the last 15 years” and “has no illusions about what is going on, but ... feels powerless
to do much of anything about it.” Russell figures the best he can accomplish is to protect both his son (“an active member of the Hitler Youth”) and his starlet lover (“who is making a comfortable living appearing in state-sanctioned plays and films filled with pro-Nazi propaganda”). But then,while in Danzig (today’s Gdańsk, Poland) during a lonely New Year’s Eve, Russell is met at his hotel by a mysterious Soviet agent, Shchepkin, who makes a startling proposal: would Russell be willing to write some pro-Nazi feature stories for the leading Soviet newspaper, Pravda? It seems the leadership of the Soviet Union is interested in pursuing a non-aggression pact with the Führer, and these articles could go a long way toward getting the Soviet citizenry ready for such an alliance. The money is good, there’s a reasonable amount of journalistic freedom involved, and for a former communist like Russell, there’s little moral reason to object. Even though this novel’s protagonist knows full well that it’s a very short distance from writing propaganda for the Soviets to spying for them, he accepts the assignment.Not long after this, one of Russell’s fellow apartment tenants, an American journalist pursuing a “spectacular story he has uncovered,” is found dead--supposedly a suicide, though Russell is suspicious. And he only becomes more so as he tries to complete that other newsman’s investigation, in the process, seriously endangering those people he swore to protect.
Miller calls Zoo Station “a marvelous return to cerebral espionage.” You can read his full assessment here.
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