“1983: The Cold War is at its height. Sir Alex Campbell, head of an international drinks company is on a business trip to Poland, a country in the midst of political turmoil. A new "Solidarity" movement is rising on the streets, and the Communist government is cracking down mercilessly. Alex Campbell has an additional mission, a "little job" for the British Secret Intelligence Services. He will deliver an airline bag containing money and passports to a British agent who is to help the world-renowned nuclear scientist, Dr. Erik Keller, escape across the Iron Curtain to the West.
Alex meets the beautiful Anna Kaluza, the British agent, whose life, like his and that of Erik Keller, had been impacted forever by her World War II experiences. He agrees to help her complete her mission.
What begins as one of many routine "little jobs" Alex has done for the SIS, quickly turns into an increasingly dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, involving murder, bribery, and international politics. His involvement in Dr. Keller's defection becomes a journey into his own past, as Alex has to face his family's history and, ultimately, his own self. Faced with the specter of oppression, he has to ask himself one question: What do you do? Do you turn and run? Or do you "pay any price and bear any burden" for liberty and freedom?
"Bear Any Burden" is a gripping page-turner, full of twists and turns and surprises as much a spy story as an epic family saga, spanning decades and continents, from 19th Century Poland all the way to the height of the Cold War. A richly complex thriller in the tradition of Graham Greene and John le Carré, posing urgent and timeless questions of family, loyalty and liberty.