Vespers in Vienna

Shortly after the end of World War II, British Colonel Michael 'Hooky' Nicobar is assigned to the Displaced Persons Division in the British Zone of Vienna, Austria. Like the author himself, Nicobar has had a limb amputated. Marshall also served in the Displaced Persons Division in Austria.[1]

Nicobar's duty is to aid Soviet authorities repatriate citizens of the Soviet Union. Billeted in the convent run by Mother Auxilia, Nicobar, and his military aides Major John 'Twingo' McPhimister and Audrey Quail, become involved in the plight of Maria, a young ballerina, who is trying to avoid being returned to Moscow, as she, like many others, fears imprisonment or execution on returning to her home country. Nicobar's sense of duty is tested as he sees first hand the plight of the people he is forcing to return to the Soviet Union; his lack of religious faith is also shaken by his contact with the Mother Superior.[2]

The novel was the basis of the 1949 film The Red Danube starring Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury and Janet Leigh. George Sidney directed.

After the movie was released the novel was re-issued as The Red Danube.

The Red Danube