I have read this book twice in my early childhood in Switzerland. Lieven's adventures fascinated me and his skill for cooking turned me almost a chef. Thirty years later, ..., I'm working on a study, how the combination of cooking, food, family can have a crucial function in our society of today.
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I read this book a few years ago in Swedish ("Inte bara kaviar") or "not only caviar". Here, we follow Thomas Lieven, a banker, around Eurpe during WWII. He constantly gets dragged into a war he finds ridiculous. All sides keep recruiting him against his will and he gets into hilarious and dangerous situations all the time.

Often, to get out of tight places, he cooks the most extraordinary meals and the recipes are given to the reader in detail. The onion soup is remarkable, I can guarantee you.

This is one of my favorite books with an enormous amount of humour, lots of action and numerous detailed recipes in one.

Our hero Thomas Liven is intelligent and easy to admire. In fact the entire book keeps you happy for a long time.

I have tried some time now to buy my own copy, either in Swedish or in English but to no avail. Anyone knows where to get a copy?

This is an eccentric, outstanding novel, an excellent mixture of comedy and tragedy, full of humor and wit, written by a German writer. One of the book I love best. I read it many years ago and I read it again now.

The story is mainly in World War II. Thomas Lieven is a young German banker. Intelligence agencies of several countries trap him and force him to work for them. Thomas obeys them superficially, but at heart he never does. He brilliantly makes a fool out of them. He is an indomitable pacifist, but not a theoretical, fanatic idealist. I particularly love his practical attitude; he racks his brain and even risks his own life to save people from bloodshed regardless their nationalities. That's very brave and nice of him. I love him so much!

What makes this story outstandingly eccentric is that Thomas loves cooking. He cooks many times to make friends, to dazzle enemies, to find a good idea and so on. Even the detailed recipes are inserted in the novel. That's so funny! Oh, who says Germans have no sense of humor?

The title "Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein" means "It need not always be caviar". Not smooth but meaningful. In Japan, the title is "Shiroi Kokuseki no Supai", that means "The Spy of White Nationality". I don't know the English title.

I cannot describe what I red by words. Johannes takes you on the wings of the story, where you sleep, dream, walk, work, suffer and die with his main characters. I have to say its been a long time since I red it, but I still feel like something from inside of me has gone away with the people in the story. I finally realized how cruel and unjust the world and people are. I dont want to be a part of it......I dont.........Read this book and you will see how it shapes your heart and feelings for yourself.................

I originally read the book in its original German. It is a fast-paced-thrilling-spy-yarnesque type of a cook book. Numerous good recipes are strewn throughout, and they are nicely tied into the plot and tailored to the circumstances. The plot reads well and is very, very entertaining. Guaranteed to be read in very few sittings.

"The Berlin Connection" was one of the titles for the English translation of "Bis zur bitteren Neige". It also appeared in English with the more literal title, "To the Bitter End," but in no case should it be a book about the unwitting secret agent/gourmet cook Thomas Lieven, whose adventures are told in "Es Muss nicht immer Kaviar sein." The two proper English titles for the book about cooking and spying are "The Monte Cristo Cover-up" and again the more literal "It Can't Always Be Caviar." Has a careless publisher put out a book with the wrong title?

Anyway, I'm prejudiced. I think Simmel's the best writer I've ever read, and I taught myself German to be able to read them all. His newest book, "Liebe ist die letzte Brucke," appeared in August, 1999. I am translating it to English as "Love is the Last Bridge."

The Berlin Connection - a title that does live up to the witty and sometimes even cheek-in-tongue nature of this book - will probably always be a bestseller because the moment you start to read you won't stop until you're done... and soon you'll read it again! Placed in the unsteady times of WWII and spiced with Thomas Lieven's recipes it makes interesting reading! Top Book!

Johannes Mario Simmel is a terrific thriller writer right there with Tom Clancy and Patricia Cornwell. Alas, his best books are not translated in english. If you can read German or any other European language (It's translated to almost all of them), read this book.

This book is about a playboy who lives on the side of the most famous movieactress in the world. He is a covard and actually hates the woman and her child, but can't abandon the lifestyle his status brings. Until one day , the world as he knows it crashes down. He is in a very deep troble. And in love.

Valerie, a woman lived in Vienna, suddenly killed an Argentine chemist and then killed herself, too. Manuel, a young, heart-broken son of the chemist begins to investigate why such an unbelievable tragedy happened and finds out that Valerie fought against Nazis to save her own son many years ago and that his father was a refugee from Nazis Germany. Meanwhile, Manuel's father was involved in a very dangerous, sinister business and that endangers innocent Manuel, too.

"Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein" written by the same author is a basically serious but outstandingly amusing novel full of humor and wit, but this novel is deadly serious and gloomy. I won't say I don't appreciate serious and gloomy novels. This novel is worth reading. Especially, the story of Valerie is very impressive. But this gloomy ending with no hope...I don't like that. Unfortunately, it seems that the most Simmel novels are deadly serious and gloomy and that "Kaviar" is a rare exception. I LOVE "Kaviar" very very very much, but I am not always a Simmel fan.