pounds in east berlin set the family drama in motion pounds was sentenced to fifteen years in prison and his wife to eight years to india brown's novel those events are the start of a difficult time for martine the couple's eighteen year old son and the author's alter ego. friends and neighbors cut him off and brand mark him as the child of traitors that was what sticks father did in fact experience. he's talked a lot to his son about what happened back then breaking the silence in the family after many years. with the scope of the other things were more important it was part of developments that weren't pleasant but we were relatively young back then i joined the east german army and the other things that were important so it was repressed only in as much as we just didn't talk about it at all we were. espionage can have a destabilizing effect personally in debt but ounce novel to generations never